Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast where each day we read a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you in your everyday life.

On Tuesdays we take a closer look at these stoic ideas, how we can apply them in our

actual lives. Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy. You can have this joy. They're depressing, they're cynical, they're negative. It's why stoicism is a misguided philosophy, we're told, why it died out,

because there was no room for happiness or joy or laughter in it. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion,

and if in their opinion that's what

stoicism is God bless him but the facts just don't support it there was

the literally a stoic ch chrysippus who laughed so hard that he died

okay what more do you need to know?

Sure, Marx Realist opens meditations

with some observations about how annoying and obnoxious people are,

but his personal letters to Franto

are filled with affection in wit.

He even tells of a prank that he pulled. The downnotes in meditations are equally matched by

reveries for the beauty of the natural world and for and gratitude for the gifts that life has given him.

And then there's Seneca, a stoic who seemed to have the most fun of all of them.

He entertained, he loved the theatre, he loved nature, he loved being active.

Sure, he understood the darkness and unpredictability of life. He buried a child, was unfairly exiled,

he witnessed Nero's evil. But it was from this that he came to fully understand how and where to find

joy.

Snatch the pleasures your children bring, he wrote.

Let your children in turn find delight in you

and train joy to the dregs without delay. No promise has been given you for this night.

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