"Make Friends with the Dead"

Post by @astoicsdaily

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"Make friends with the dead." Something like 6 percent of all people ever born are alive today. Learn from different cultures and generations. Find people to emulate in virtue and example. 

There's a saying from ancient Rome, "everyone needs a Cato" about Cato the Elder and his great grandson Cato the Younger. In a time of self-indulgence, both were known for their virtue, eloquence, and influence. 

Cato understood women. "Suffer women once to arrive at an equality with you, and they will from that moment become your superiors." He respected their abilities. 

Antoninus was the predecessor as Emperor to Marcus Aurelius. He is best known for presiding over the empire with peace for 23 years from 138-161. Decades of peace in that era was inconceivable. Conflicts rage today in more than half a dozen countries.

Few women achieved status or power outside of marriage in the ancient world and they lacked rights. The few who did, notably Claudia Metrodora must have had remarkable force of personality. "One inscription in particular describes her as 'being desirous of glory for the city ... a lover of her homeland and priestess of life of the divine empress Aphrodite Livia, by reason of her excellence and admirable behaviour.'"

We don't have to return two millennia. Learn lessons in leadership from Doris Kearns Goodwin in Leadership in Turbulent Times. 

Don't confine yourself to the narrow world of the living. 

Lagniappe. Know your defense's seam responsibilities. Consult with your coaches for their preferences. 

Lagniappe 2. Shoulder exercises with resistance bands.