Planting Trees In Shade We’ll Never Know

<p>Late last year, <a href='https://www.instagram.com/p/Brk4xitn0DH/'>a man named Ken Watson died</a> at age 87, but before he did, <a href='https://people.com/human-interest/elderly-neighbor-bought-little-girl-14-years-of-christmas-presents-before-he-died/'>he made sure to gift wrap fourteen presents for his two year old neighbor</a>.  He’d always told her that he’d live to be 100, and when that looked like it wasn’t going to happen, he decided he’d need to plan ahead. Which is why, after his death, his own daughter came around with a large bag of presents—enough to provide one per year until the little girl turned sixteen years old. </p><p>It’s a beautiful little story that warms the soul. But today, let’s make sure it does more than that. Let’s actually learn from it.</p><p>Today’s politics have become sadly lopsided, wherein the elderly now make up one of the largest, most intractable, and most self-interested voting blocs. Despite mounting problems on multiple fronts—from the climate to Social Security to immigration to income inequality—we’re unable to come up with common sense solutions, in part because this group is more concerned with protecting their own short-term interests rather than their grandchildren’s long-term ones. It’s shameful and it’s a betrayal of the goodness that someone like Ken Watson so touchingly illustrated. </p><p>There is an old Greek proverb that reads, “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” It’s one the Stoics would have agreed with. While <a href='https://dailystoic.com/marcus-aurelius/?utm_source=convertkit&amp;utm_medium=convertkit&amp;utm_campaign=in-shade'>Marcus Aurelius</a> and <a href='https://dailystoic.com/seneca/?utm_source=convertkit&amp;utm_medium=convertkit&amp;utm_campaign=in-shade'>Seneca</a> took pains to discourage chasing legacy or posthumous fame, they did believe it was the philosopher’s duty to serve the common good—to contribute to the Roman Empire in a way that would allow it to stand for future gene