The Daily Stoic - These Are The People Watching Out For You
Episode Date: September 3, 2021Ryan explains why we should thank the people who put their lives on the line for our freedom, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/emailFo...llow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wundery's podcast business wars.
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Welcome 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 every day 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 dailystealistoeak.com.
These are the people watching out for you.
One of the most inspiring themes in the history of stoicism is how the Stoics put it all on the line for someone or something else.
There was Cato refusing to roll over and just let Caesar destroy the Republic.
There was Marcus Aurelius who stayed in Rome as the plague ravaged, serving with great
dedication to the cost of his personal health.
There was Thrasia's obstinate resistance to Nero's tyranny.
There was Helvides speaking out directly against Vespasian, even after
Vespasian threatened his life. There was James Stockdale in that prison camp in Vietnam,
suffering great pain and anguish to bring an end to the torture that his fellow POWs endured.
Perhaps Senaqa was contemplating his own heroic end when he wrote admiringly of those who
rank virtue ahead of personal safety.
We should cherish the body with the greatest care he writes, but we should also be prepared
when reason, self-respect, and duty demand the sacrifice to deliver it even to the flames.
In Courage's calling, I write about two Marines working a guard post in Ramadi in 2008
when a truck bomber raced towards the small base they protected. Two corpoles stepped forward in
unison and began to fire. Two thousand pounds of explosives went off as they
unloaded their weapons into the accelerating truck. Just six seconds
elapsed between the truck's appearance and its horrible destruction. It was
enough time for the local police to get away,
but not the two Marines.
But because these two young men didn't know how to run from danger,
General John Kelly would say, in a speech a few years later,
150 people were saved.
Heroes like these two young Marines are not uncommon.
Just last week at the Kabul Airport in Afghanistan, a suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. service members
as they worked tirelessly and at great risk to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of
refugees from the Taliban.
In reading the many moving statements from friends and family members of those 13 troops, one
grieves the loss, yes, but it also finds great
comfort and inspiration in the fact that such people exist. Indeed, as Kelly said,
it is these heroes, the ones that are prepared to deliver themselves to the
flames if duty demands it, who are on watch for us all over the world tonight.
Rest in peace to these 13 amazing service members,
all the service members and all,
the armed forces all over the world to protect us,
and put themselves at great risk for us.
It's a tragedy of immense proportions,
and I wanted to write this little email
in honor of that sacrifice.
Which I think goes to the core of what makes people great,
certainly at the core of what stoicism is all about.
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