These are crazy times. Crazy people are in charge. Crazy things are happening. It’s enough to terrify any parent. It’s enough to discourage the most hopeful person.
Well guess what? You don’t get to be scared. You don’t get to be discouraged. And most importantly, you don’t get to be crazy either.
You’re the person your kids look to and look up to. You must keep an even keel. You must keep going. You must not get dragged down or radicalized or despair.
We quote Mike Duncan’s episode from the Daily Stoic podcast quite a lot (listen to the episode here). Speaking of the era where the Roman Republic collapsed, Duncan said his definition of Stoicism was saying, “The winds may howl but I will not be swept away.” That is what every parent has to say in every era.
What we do is too important, the stakes are too high. We have our kids to think about. So we must keep our wits and our hopes and our courage and our conscience about us. Now and forever.