A Dad Must Think The Unthinkable

<p>It’s fitting that one of the most important things you can do as a parent would require you to think about a thing that’s very nearly impossible for a parent to even consider. It comes to us from <a href='https://dailystoic.com/marcus-aurelius/?utm_source=sendfox&amp;utm_medium=sendfox&amp;utm_campaign=think-the-unthinkable'>Marcus Aurelius</a> by way of <a href='https://dailystoic.com/epictetus/?utm_source=sendfox&amp;utm_medium=sendfox&amp;utm_campaign=think-the-unthinkable'>Epictetus</a>: </p><p><em>As you kiss your son good night, says Epictetus, whisper to yourself, “He may be dead in the morning.” Don’t tempt fate, you say. By talking about a natural event? Is fate tempted when we speak of grain being reaped?</em></p><p>Of course, this is not an easy thing to do. It goes against all our impulses. But we must do it. Because life is fleeting and the world is cruel. Marcus lost 5 children. 5! <a href='https://dailystoic.com/seneca/?utm_source=sendfox&amp;utm_medium=sendfox&amp;utm_campaign=think-the-unthinkable'>Seneca</a>, we gather, lost one early too. It should never happen, but it does. It heartbreakingly-world-wreckingly-nobody-deserves-it does. And it’s not that we hope that Marcus Aurelius and Seneca’s philosophical training prepared them for the pain of losing a child (nothing can prepare you for that). What we hope is that this exercise meant they didn’t waste a single second of the time they did get with their beautiful children.</p><p>A parent who faces the fact that they can lose a child at any moment is a parent who is present. Who loves. Who does not hold onto stupid things or <a href='https://dailydad.com/to-have-a-more-peaceful-home-do-this/?utm_source=sendfox&amp;utm_medium=sendfox&amp;utm_campaign=think-the-unthinkable'>enforce stupid rules</a>. A great dad looks at the cruel world and says, “I know what you can do to my family in the future, but for the moment you’ve spared me. I will not take that for granted.” Anxiety? Keeping up with the Joneses? Caring about getting into that