Big Idea Daily | Right Thing Right Now
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Good Values. Good Character. Good Deeds.by Ryan Holiday |
“Injustice is a kind of blasphemy. Nature designed rational beings for each other’s sake: to help—not harm—one another, as they deserve. To transgress its will, then, is to blaspheme against the oldest of the gods."MARCUS AURELIUS |
BIG IDEA #1
The Ultimate Virtue
FROM THE BOOK“The clearest evidence that justice is the most important of all the virtues comes from what happens when you remove it.
It’s remarkably stark: The presence of injustice instantly renders any act of virtue—courage, discipline, wisdom—any skill, any achievement, worthless. . . or worse.
Courage in the pursuit of evil? A brilliant person with no morals? Self-discipline to the point of perfect selfishness? There’s an argument that if everyone acted with justice all the time, we wouldn’t have so much need for courage. While discretion moderates bravery and pleasure provides us relief from excessive self-control, the ancients would point out that there is no virtue to counterbalance justice.
It just is.
It just is the whole point.
Of every virtue. Of every action. Of our very lives.
Nothing is right if we’re not doing what is right.
It probably says something about our world today, however, that when people hear the word ‘justice,’ their first thought is not of decency or duty but of the legal system. They think attorneys. They think politics. We are concerned with what’s lawful, we fight for ‘our rights’ a lot more than what is right. It might be too on the nose to call this an ‘indictment’ of modern values, but it’s hard to see it as anything else.”
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Brian's Notes
Those are the very first words of the introduction.
Justice.
It’s the ultimate virtue.
Now...
When I think of the cardinal virtues of ancient wisdom, I approach it the same way Ryan does with one modification. We have Wisdom, Discipline, and Courage.
Then...
Rather than call it “Justice,” I like to think of that virtue as “LOVE.”
If you read the ancient Stoics, their sense of “Justice” is so much deeper than our modern take on it. For example, here’s Marcus Aurelius in Meditations: “Let your one delight and refreshment be to pass from one service to the community to another, with God ever in mind.”
Wisdom. Discipline. Courage. Love.
Love.
THAT is the ultimate virtue.
It’s also helpful to remember that the word Hero literally means “protector.” The Hero has strength for TWO. The Hero’s secret weapon is LOVE.
It’s LOVE that gives us the Courage to act in the presence of fear. It’s LOVE that gives us the Discipline to do what needs to be done whether we feel like it or not. It’s LOVE that fuels us to close the gap, and be our best selves in service to something bigger than ourselves.
Fun fact: As I was typing this, my stopwatch timer beeped—signaling another 1,000 seconds had lapsed (16 min and 40 sec) and that it was time for me to get up and bang out another set of 11 burpees.
As I was hammering out those burpees, the dog tag I wear on a necklace came out of my t-shirt and started jangling a bit with each rep.
I smiled.
On that dog tag, I have imprinted a reminder of why I do what I do.
The dog tag says:
I love you, Alexandra.
I love you, Emerson.
I love you, Eleanor.
LOVE.
Let’s never forget that it’s the Hero’s secret weapon.
The ultimate virtue and why we do all we do.
P.S. I think I might need to add another line to that dog tag for YOU:
I love you, Hero.
Big Ideas
01: THE ULTIMATE VIRTUE
02: REALIZE YOUR POTENTIAL
03: COMPETENCE
04: SATYAGRAHA
05: PAY IT FORWARD
“When we don’t do our best, when we hold something back, we are cheating ourselves. We are cheating our gifts. We are cheating the potential beneficiaries of us reaching our full potential."RYAN HOLIDAY |
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