Who Do You See?

0:00You probably heard the headlines about all the different cuts to foreign aid and food benefits. This is having a profound impact on the world's poorest people and the world's poorest communities. But, you know, just hearing about that, that's not what stoicism is about. Stoicism is, to me, what you're going to do about it. And that's where GiveWell comes in. GiveWell is trusted by tens of thousands of donors each year because they provide free and independent research that helps you understand how to have a big impact. GiveWell has spent the last 18 years researching global health and poverty alleviation, and they direct funding to the highest impact opportunities.

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3:00Welcome 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.

3:27Who do you see? We don't think of the ancient Romans as living just like us, but in many ways they did. A recent archaeological dig in Bulgaria found a Roman estate with a collection of household mirrors. In the first century AD, Pliny the Elder wrote in his Natural History about the invention of glass mirrors, which means that Marcus Aurelius may have looked at himself in the mirror in the morning, just like you did. What did he see? Of course, we have some idea. Plenty of statues of the man survive. There are also recent colorized renderings of Marcus that give us an idea. But deeper than physical form, what did Marcus see?

4:06Did he like himself? Was he self-conscious? Did he like his curls? Did he wonder what he'd look like without a beard, which had become trendy since Hadrian? Or on a deeper level, is he starting to notice his age? As we talked about recently, that may well be what our faces are for, to remind us of the passage of time, to show us that we're not so young anymore. We know that in meditations, Marcus was often frustrated with himself, that he didn't believe he was living up to his potential or his philosophy, even though he had studied it for so long. Hopefully those mornings in the mirror were more positive, though.

4:40Marcus could have taken time to remind himself of what his job was, that no matter what anyone else said or did, his task was to be good. Maybe he gave himself a wink, prepared himself for the annoying and obnoxious people he was likely to meet that day, smiling, knowing that he didn't have to implicate himself in their ugliness. Maybe he noted that he was lucky to be alive and he felt a second of gratitude before heading out in the world. What about you? What do you see in the morning? What conversations do you have with yourself in those fleeting seconds as you check your hair and make sure that you don't have anything in your teeth?

5:16It may not seem like much, but this little opportunity is a timeless one. And it's one you can take to be present and philosophical. So take it.

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