| It's the thing we all dread. It almost always comes as a surprise, and is always an unwelcome surprise. Comfort fails us, we fail to comfort others. When we lose someone, when we hear that someone has died, it's a tragedy. It's the worst part about being alive, honestly. It's one of the few areas where it seems that the Stoic idea that the obstacle is the way fails. How could you possibly say amor fati to someone who just buried a parent or a child or to an organization that lost a leader, a country that lost an artist or a president? You can't. And the Stoics were not so insensitive as to believe that it was good that someone died. That's not what they meant by "opportunity"—what they meant was that there was always something to learn, always some virtue we could practice in light of a tragedy that would make us better, teach us something, help us see something. One of Lincoln's most beautiful speeches is a eulogy he delivered for Zachory Taylor in Chicago in 1850. Taylor, who died unexpectedly a little more than a year into office, left behind him many unfulfilled hopes—he had tried to unify the country and prevent the coming civil war. He left behind a large family and many friends. What good was there in the premature death of a great general and potentially great president? "The death of the late President may not be without its use," Lincoln explained, "in reminding us, that we, too, must die. Death, abstractly considered, is the same with the high as with the low; but practically, we are not so much aroused to the contemplation of our own mortal natures, by the fall of many undistinguished, as that of one great, and well known, name. By the latter, we are forced to muse, and ponder, sadly." Seneca said that when we hear our neighbor has died, we should engage in a similar pondering. Not "oh, how sad for them," but "oh, how easily that could be me," how inevitability it one day will be you. Memento Mori.
| Obviously, I take my sleep seriously. One of the ways I do that is with Eight Sleep—and I'm probably not the first person to tell you that. Their buzz-worthy sleep technology, called the Pod, can be added to your existing mattress like a fitted sheet to automatically cool down or warm up each side of your bed—and in turn, improve your sleep quality dramatically. My sleep just recently got even better because Eight Sleep launched their newest generation of the Pod: Pod 4 Ultra. It cools, it heats, and now it elevates, automatically. It is also clinically proven to give you up to one hour more of quality sleep every night (which we could all use). Plus, with Pod 4 Ultra you can leave all your wearables on the nightstand because of its integrated and imperceptible sensors that track your sleep time, sleep phases, HRV and heart rate with 99% tracking accuracy. So if you want to sleep more and better and get your routine back on track, head here and use code DAILYSTOIC to get $350 off Pod 4 Ultra. Currently ships to the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe and Australia. |
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