This Roman Party Trick Holds A Hidden Wisdom | It’s Just A Number

0:00I'm recording this on a Monday, and Monday is our grocery store day in our family. I usually pick my kids up from school and we go over to Whole Foods, get all our groceries for the week. Although here very shortly, we're going to go over there to get our Thanksgiving turkey because they've got a bunch of great options. Turkeys start at$1.49 a pound if you have Prime with organic birds at$2.99 a pound. And they only carry no antibiotic ever turkeys that will bring quality to your table at a great price. Whole Foods has great everyday prices on all your Thanksgiving essentials, whether you celebrate with a massive family or just a few close friends.

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1:19Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Friday, we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation, but also reading a passage from The Daily Stoic, my book, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance in the Art of Living, which I wrote with my wonderful collaborator, translator, and literary agent, Stephen Hanselman. So today, we'll give you a quick meditation from the Stoics with some analysis from me, and then we'll send you out into the world to turn these words into works.

2:00The Greeks and Romans were known for their parties. They threw huge ones. Seneca famously owned, not rented, some 300 tables for entertaining. Imagine that. The ancients also knew how to drink. Cato liked to drink, so did Socrates. There's no evidence that Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus and Seneca didn't either. But the accounts of their drinking don't square one-to-one with our modern times. You see, the Greeks and the Romans were famous for watering down their wine. In fact, anyone who didn't water down their wine was considered barbaric, someone who is out of control. The poet Hisoid, a favorite of Marcus Aurelius and Seneca and many of the Stoics, actually said that three parts water and one part wine was the proper ratio.

2:47Nobody but the drunks drank their alcohol neat. For much of history, the symbol of mixing water and wine has been a kind of symbol for that essential stoic virtue that we talk so much about here, moderation. Wine was quite strong in those days, so to take this intoxicating but enjoyable pleasure and dilute it a bit, that was not only necessary, but it was an important metaphor. It's one we should think about today. What vices or indulgences do we have that we might add a little water to? Maybe if you drink soda, you can start mixing in some diet. Or if you like lemonade or tea, you can mix a little bit of sweetened into your unsweetened rather than the other way around.

3:30Water down your television time by reading during the commercial breaks. Water down your night out with friends by listening to a podcast or an audiobook on the way out. Water down your workout regimen with rest days. Water down your whirlwind love affair with time apart. Moderation is key. Don't overdo anything. Don't take virtue or vice in its pure or unadulterated form. Balance. Soften. Enjoy. Thanks to Toyota Trucks for sponsoring this episode. When I bought my ranch in 2015 out here in Bastro County, I drove my car about halfway down the dirt road that we live on, thought this isn't going to work, stopped, parked it, walked the rest of the way home, borrowed my wife's car, drove into Austin and bought a truck.

4:18What I bought was a Toyota Tacoma. And this truck wasn't just transportation getting me to and from my house. It unlocked a whole different style of living for us, not just on the ranch, but in our little Texas towns. There were places I could go now that I couldn't go before, especially out here in the piney forests, through the fields, and on the unpaved roads like the one that I lived in. We got to go deep into the hill country's wild beauty. We've driven all the way out to East Texas. We've driven it across the country. And by we, I mean not just my wife, but both my kids who I drove home from the hospital in that truck.

5:00Toyota trucks are built for those who understand that the best adventures happen when you're willing to veer off course. Because you never know when you'll end up on a Toyota adventure detour. And of course, this is stoicism, too, because every detour, every obstacle is an opportunity. But it's helpful if you can handle the difficulty inherent in that. If you've got the resilience and the right companion to make it wherever the road takes you. Discover your uncharted territory. Learn more at toyota.com slash trucks slash adventure dash detours. It's just a number. This is the December 13th entry from the Daily Stoic, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living.

5:47I am holding a copy that someone ordered from the Painted Porch that they're asking me to sign. You can grab those at store.dailystoic.com. We have a leather-bound edition, although that's downstairs. Today's entry, though, begins with a quote from Marcus Aurelius' Meditations 649. You aren't bothered, are you, because you weigh a certain amount and not twice as much? So why do you get worked up that you've been given a certain lifespan and not more? Just as you're satisfied with your normal weight, you should be with the time you've been given. They say that age is just a number, but to some people, it's a very important one.

6:25Otherwise, women wouldn't lie about being younger and ambitious young men wouldn't lie about being older. Rich people and health nuts spend billions of dollars in an effort to move the expiration date from around 78 years to hopefully forever. The number of years we managed to eke out doesn't matter, though. Only what those years are composed of. Seneca put it best when he said, life is long if you know how to use it. Sadly, most people don't. They waste the life you've been given. Only when it's too late do they try to compensate for that waste by vainly hoping to put more time on the clock. Use today.

7:08Use every day. Make yourself satisfied with what you've been given. I said this before, but I got to know this guy, Richard Overton in Austin before he died. When he died, he was the oldest man in the world. He was 112 years old. My son and wife, I was out of town, they got to go to his 112th birthday. How crazy is that? But it's interesting. I've gotten to know a number of really old people. We just had Judge Block on the podcast. He's 90. George Raveling is 88. Look, all these people, they're not itching to die. But one of the things that I think is interesting when you meet older people is they're not desperate to live longer.

7:47That's kind of a young man or young woman's game or fantasy or delusion even, right? All these, you know, as I said, health nuts who are like radical life extensioncy. It's not old people that are thinking that way. It's not, right? Partly it's because their quality of life is diminished. They haven't always taken care of themselves. It's something Peter Atiyah talks about a lot in his work. But also I think what you tend to realize, you start to realize as you older is it's not about the quantity, it's about the quality. And it's about making use of the time you have as opposed to deferring and deferring, getting more and more and more.

8:25Look, of course, life is good. Dying, not so good. If you had to pick one or the other, you'd pick to be alive than not alive, right? For the most part. But I guess what I'm saying is that when you hear these people talk about how they want to live forever or whatever, they never have like a great reason. Again, life itself is precious and great. I'm not saying that's not, but what I'm saying is that they're never like, I need all this time because I have to do X, Y, and Z because I just so love X, Y, and Z. What's funny when I look at some of these people, and I know some, I spend a lot of time with them.

9:02I'm not like, that's the guy. It's mostly dudes. That's the person that I would gift another two decades because they use it so well, right? Most of their time seems to be caught up with weird health stuff, right? I guess what I'm saying, this is what Seneca is trying to say when he said that life isn't short, we just waste a lot of it. These people who keep needing to push the clock, how are they using the time they have now? How are you using the time you have now? I was just talking to someone who was pushing back the deadline on the book they have to submit. They're like, you know, I could use more time.

9:35The deadline was like two months from now. They're like, I think I'm going to ask for an extension. And I was like, look, if it was due tomorrow and you were wrapping up and you could use that week, that'd be one thing. I said, I feel like you're not using today that well. You didn't use yesterday that well. Why do you think three months versus two months is going to be radically different? Are you actually going to get an extra a month if the deadline is extended from two months to three months from now? And I think this is the point about fantasizing about living to your 90, living to your 100, becoming the oldest person in the world.

10:14You tell yourself, are you really going to live those years? But where is the evidence? Where is the proof? How are you showing right now? Maybe that's an interesting question. How are you showing right now that you are worthy of all those extra years? That's what I want to leave you with today. I know it's a little strange. The month of December in the Daily Stoic book is all about memento mori. But this is the time to think about these questions, to evaluate what's important, to evaluate how you're spending your time. That's where I want to leave you today. Memento mori. Life is short. Use today.

10:50Use every day. Make yourself satisfied with what you've been given. Make yourself worthy of getting more. Talk soon.

11:01Thanks so much for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast. If you don't know this, you can get these delivered to you via email every day. Check it out at dailystoic.com slash email.

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