It Made Him Great

0:00I'm picking my kids up from school today and then doing our weekly routine which is I take them over to Whole Foods and we get all our groceries for the week then we have dinner it's one of my favorite. things to do and then my wife loves it because she doesn't have to take care of it this holiday season whether you're a guest or hosting the big dinner whole foods market has what you need to delight everyone at your table they even have heat and eat sides from the prepared foods department you can make whole foods your one-stop shop everything follows whole foods markets strict ingredients standards so you know it'll be delicious and good for you you can also order online for pickup and even delivery in select zip codes to skip the crowds shop everything you need at Whole Foods Market, your holiday headquarters.

0:43I got an amazing night's sleep last night. One, because my six-year-old fell asleep in the car at like six o 'clock and he transferred him from the car seat to the bed and it stuck, which is just magic. So he's in bed way earlier than normal. But I sleep really well every night because I have a 8 Sleep Pod 5 Ultra, which is 8 Sleep's best product. I've used Eight Sleep for many years now, and it's just totally transformed how I sleep, made me sleep better, made my wife sleep better. It's amazing. So basically, Eight Sleep is this topper that goes over your mattress. It can heat and cool both sides separately.

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2:15Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom in everyday life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2 ,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoic.com.

2:42It made him great. Abraham Lincoln was shaped by one book more than any other. You might guess that would be the Bible, given the ease with which he would quote and allude to ideas from it in his speeches and letters over the years. But Lincoln's faith was actually something that evolved more slowly over time, especially after the tragedies that rocked him later in life. Instead, when he was young, he fell in love with Aesop's fables. This was a book he read over and over again, one friend observed. These fables, written by a slave and a storyteller who lived in ancient Greece around 620 BC, they spoke to Lincoln's soul.

3:17He memorized large chunks of the book. His mind, which had always tended towards anecdotes and story, just locked on to Aesop's brilliant method for teaching complicated moral lessons and clever fictions about mice and lions and foxes. It became a lens through which he came to understand human nature, the language with which he tried to communicate reality through. You know his famous line about how a house divided against itself cannot stand? That was Jesus he was quoting, but he did it next to a recounting of Aesop's fable about a bundle of sticks. And actually, Aesop has a second fable illustrating the same point, but told about a lion and three bulls.

3:53Where would Lincoln have been had he not been introduced to this wisdom early? Where might the country have ended up without that wisdom making its way into his brain as a child? And the same could be said for the thousands of generations of men and women who were introduced to Aesop and his lessons. Whether they were learning about sour grapes or golden eggs or that slow and steady win the race. and the fact that you almost certainly recognize at least a couple of these phrases or ideas without hearing the full stories demonstrate how indelibly they have made their way through culture. However old your kids or grandkids are, you should take some time to read them these stories, talk with them about them, illustrate these lessons and ideas, the things you want your kids to know through them.

4:36They're timeless for a reason. It's because they're true and it's because they work. We actually carry a great edition of Aesop's Fables at the Painted Porch, which you can grab. I'll link to that in today's show notes. And then I wrote two fables, one about Marcus Aurelius and one about Epictetus, where I try to teach some of these lessons through that power of story. If you want to teach your kids stoicism, that could be a way in. That's one of the questions I get most often. And it's how I introduced my own kids to them. And we talk about these ideas through these, you know, fictitious, but based in reality fables.

5:09And they helped me with them. So I'm really proud of those two books. You can grab The Boy Who Would Be King and The Girl Who Would Be Free at The Painted Porch or go to store.dailydad.com.

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6:20That's what Toyota trucks are built for. Off-road confidence, rugged durability, and the freedom to explore. Toyota has a long history with the outdoor community, and they're committed to helping more people get out there and experience what nature has to offer. From remote trails to scenic byways, Toyota Trucks empowers you to take the detour, roam freely, and discover places that still feel wild and untouched. And they're not just making great trucks, they're working to expand access to adventure so more people can connect with the outdoors and pass that passion on to the next generation. Discover your uncharted territory.

6:49Learn more at toyota.com slash trucks slash adventure dash detours. That's toyota.com slash trucks slash adventure dash detours.