| Only TWO DAYS left to grab The Obstacle Is The Way ebook for just $2.99! Head here to get your copy or gift one to a friend today! In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius says that what you throw on top of a fire becomes fuel for that fire. But anyone who has tended a campfire knows how easily a poorly placed log or even a few sticks can snuff out the flames. Marcus is speaking metaphorically about obstacles, not literal fire—but his metaphor only works under a few assumptions. For one, he's assuming that everything is flammable. Is that really true? Not exactly. But even if we grant that everything will incinerate at some temperature, we're still admitting that things can burn at a wide range of temperatures. So perhaps what Marcus really means is that your fire has to be really hot. It has to really be roaring if you want to be able to turn what is thrown into it, as he says, into flame and brightness. If we look at the metaphor Marcus uses right before this fire one, his message is clearer. "A strong stomach digests what it eats," he says. So a weak stomach won't be able to digest everything and a small, weak fire is not going to be able to handle a big dry log, let alone something heartier. It's definitely not going to be able to melt steel or glass. And so it goes for us with obstacles. If we want to be the metaphorical fire that turns everything into fuel, we must be quite strong. We must have real momentum. We must be operating at a high and heated level. Or we'll be snuffed out by the very materials that others are able to make use of. P.S. Quick reminder that you can grab The Obstacle Is The Way ebook at just $2.99 for the next TWO DAYS only! That's probably the cheapest price it'll ever be, so now's the perfect time to snag a copy for you or a friend (or if you wanted a digital copy to have on the go). Get the $2.99 Obstacle ebook here OR, if you prefer reading paper books like us, you can grab signed copies of the book at the Daily Stoic Store by heading here now.
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