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Looking Back at 2025: A Year of Loss, Resolve, and Reckoning

February 11, 2026February 11, 2026 B. John 107 Views 0 Comments Resilience, Civic Engagement, Reflection, grief, aging, Reinvention, Intentional Living, Stoicism

At 66, I did not expect 2025 to take as much as it did. My mother died. I lost my job. Certain illusions about stability quietly disappeared. It was not a year of fireworks or easy victories. It was a year of subtraction. And yet, beneath the loss, something steadier emerged: clarity. About health. About purpose. About what still matters when titles and timelines fall away.
If 2025 was the year of endurance, 2026 must be the year of intention. Fewer illusions. More intention. The road continues. In this year-end reflection, I write honestly about grief, layoffs, aging, civic resolve, and the discipline of choosing steadiness anyway. I hope you’ll read the full piece and walk a little of that road with me.

Places Tampa Politics Election Legislature Featured

The Ideological Tourist: Why Josie Tomkow is the Wrong Prescription for Tampa

February 4, 2026February 5, 2026 B. John 154 Views 0 Comments Health Committee, Public Health, Ideological Tourist, Campaign of Terror, Tampa Bay, Florida Politics, Senate District 14, Josie Tomkow, Carpetbagging

This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series 2026 Elections

Josie Tomkow is a career politician currently engaged in an audacious act of “ideological tourism.” Having spent years in rural Polk County, she is now attempting to transplant her record of institutionalized cruelty into the heart of South Tampa and Downtown. As the Chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee, she hasn’t just been a witness to the state’s “campaign of terror” against marginalized communities—she has been its gatekeeper. From overseeing draconian abortion bans to weaponizing healthcare against the LGBTQ+ community, Tomkow has treated the law as a tool for “othering” rather than a safeguard for the public.

For a district that serves as the engine of Florida’s medical and research sector, Tomkow’s record is a fundamental mismatch. While Tampa’s doctors and researchers rely on scientific consensus, Tomkow has been the primary legislative enabler for a reckless anti-science agenda that threatens our schools and retirees. She is a “carpetbagger” who views our community as a political fallback, yet she brings with her a “patrimonial” system that prioritizes extremist loyalty over the actual health of our citizens. It is time to tell this opportunist that Tampa’s values—and our healthcare—are not for sale.

Stoicism Featured Places Tampa Religion Society Methodism

Civic Duty as Lived Responsibility

February 1, 2026 B. John 131 Views 0 Comments Stoicism, faith in action, justice, civic duty, social responsibility, community care, volunteerism, Wesleyan theology

This entry is part 57 of 58 in the series Journey Through Stoicism

Where will someone sleep in your city tonight? Civic duty rarely announces itself. It does not arrive as a moment of clarity or a flood of inspiration. More often, it looks like routine. Mats laid out across a facility space. Meals delivered and set out. Volunteers arriving in shifts through the night so others can sleep indoors when the temperature drops.

We talk about civic duty as an idea, but it is better understood as a practice. It begins when concern becomes action. Not because the work feels noble, but because shared life demands it. When a community faces need, and some people have the capacity to respond, responsibility follows. Not as heroism. As participation.

This essay reflects on civic duty as lived responsibility. Drawing on Stoic philosophy, Wesleyan theology, and a wider moral consensus across traditions, it asks what it really means to show up for others when the work is repetitive, incomplete, and often unseen.

Economy Featured Places Tampa Politics Election Legislature

Steel-Toed Integrity

January 10, 2026February 4, 2026 B. John 285 Views 0 Comments Steel-Toed Integrity, IBEW, Tampa Politics, Veteran, Working Families, Senate District 14, Brian Nathan

This entry is part 5 of 7 in the series 2026 Elections

When something breaks in the real world, you don’t call a politician to give a speech; you call someone with a toolbox to fix it. That is the leadership Brian Nathan offers Senate District 14. A Navy veteran and IBEW electrician who chose Tampa as his home during the Great Recession, Brian brings a craftsman’s perspective to a political system that is deeply broken.

Read about Brian’s vision for “steel-toed integrity”—a philosophy born on the job site that prioritizes practical solutions for working families over political theater. He is running to fight for affordable housing, good-paying local jobs, and quality education.

Legislature Economy Featured Places Tampa Politics

The High Price of “Nice”: What Karen Gonzalez Pittman is Actually Costing South Tampa

January 7, 2026January 7, 2026 B. John 423 Views 0 Comments Karen Gonzalez Pittman, South Tampa Politics, Florida Property Insurance, Florida Legislature, District 65, Cost of Living, Culture Wars, Fiscal Responsibility, Florida GOP

This entry is part 3 of 7 in the series 2026 Elections

Is your State Rep costing you money?

On paper, Representative Karen Gonzalez Pittman fits South Tampa perfectly. She’s polished, presentable, and active in the community. If you met her at a Palma Ceia mixer, you’d think, “Now, there’s a reasonable person.” But for the wealthy and aspirational residents of District 65, voting for Pittman has become an expensive illusion. You think you’re voting for stability, but you’re actually paying a premium for a representative who consistently prioritizes Tallahassee’s culture war performance art over your bank account.

The most glaring receipt is your property insurance bill. For years, the Republican supermajority, of which Pittman is a loyal member, has promised that if we protected insurance companies from lawsuits, rates would trickle down. Pittman voted for every one of those protections. Yet, while your premiums have doubled, she and her colleagues have spent the legislative session banning books and policing bathrooms rather than fixing the financial crisis that is actually threatening our property values.

There’s a high cost to the “anti-woke” agenda, and South Tampa homeowners are paying it. This is a clear example of Patrimonialism: the state is run for insiders, while regular people get worse service and pay more. It’s time to see what her “nice” image is really costing you.

Featured Places Kings Mountain Boone NC

Stoic Practices: Negative Visualization

November 4, 2025November 4, 2025 B. John 347 Views 0 Comments Premeditatio Malorum, grief, mindfulness, negative visualization, Preparation, Gratitude, Resilience

This entry is part 2 of 18 in the series Stoicism Practices

This entry is part 48 of 58 in the series Journey Through Stoicism

What if imagining loss could make life feel fuller, not darker? The Stoics called it premeditatio malorum—the quiet practice of picturing what could go wrong, not to suffer in advance, but to steady the heart for when it does.

In this new essay, I write about sitting beside my mother near the end of her life, and later facing my own health scare. Both moments taught me that rehearsing misfortune isn’t about fear. It’s about gratitude. The kind that comes from realizing how much you already have.

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Stoic Practices: Contemplation of Nature

October 15, 2025November 30, 2025 B. John 228 Views 0 Comments humility, Climate Change, Stoicism, Marcus Aurelius, hurricane, Seneca, contemplation of nature, Tampa Bay, environmental ethics, balance

This entry is part 7 of 18 in the series Stoicism Practices

This entry is part 44 of 58 in the series Journey Through Stoicism

Stoicism teaches that nature is both teacher and law. In a time of rising seas and stronger storms, the lesson feels urgent: to live according to nature now means to remember that we are not outside it.

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Rehearsing Virtue in Small Daily Acts

October 13, 2025November 30, 2025 B. John 388 Views 0 Comments Tampa, virtue, compassion, daily practice, empathy, The Portico, Stoicism, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Massimo Pigliucci

This entry is part 8 of 18 in the series Stoicism Practices

This entry is part 43 of 58 in the series Journey Through Stoicism

At The Portico café in downtown Tampa, I paused my work to sit with a man who had just been released from prison. He was unsure what to do next. I offered coffee, listened, and waited until the manager returned to connect him with help. It wasn’t a big deal, but later, I realized how much peace there can be in simply giving someone attention for a few minutes.

In the past, I invited my widowed neighbor to join my husband and me for our usual Taco Tuesday after she told me her daughter had been declared cancer-free. She later said how much the evening meant to her. Those simple moments, one with a stranger, one with a friend, reminded me that compassion is a practice. The Stoics taught that virtue is built not in theory but in repetition, through the small choices that make us steady and kind.

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Living the Last Best Moment

September 30, 2025December 13, 2025 B. John 359 Views 0 Comments Stoicism, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, present moment, Thich Nhat Hanh, Joan Didion, Charles Taylor, attention

This entry is part 38 of 58 in the series Journey Through Stoicism

Greta Gerwig once said, “You don’t know when the last time of something happening is. You don’t know what the last great day you’ll spend with your best friend is. You’ll just know when you’ve never had that day again.” That line has echoed in me ever since I first heard it. It captures both the sweetness and fragility of the present moment.
The Stoics knew this well. Marcus Aurelius warned against drifting into tomorrow, reminding himself that life is lived only in the day at hand. Seneca told us that we waste time as if it were endless. For them, attention to the present was not a poetic thought. It was survival. It was also the way to live a life worth remembering.
I think of an afternoon long ago with my friend Jim, shooting pool at his parents’ house. Or a fall day on a golf course with my friend Mike, pausing to look over Moss Lake together. Neither seemed extraordinary at the time. Yet they have stayed with me as “last great days.” The lesson is clear: if I want to live fully, I must live here, in this moment, as if it could be the last best one.

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The View from Above

August 29, 2025November 30, 2025 B. John 2496 Views 0 Comments hospital, Wesleyan, Memento Mori, social holiness, Stoicism, Boone, Evening Reflection, Dichotomy of Control, View from Above, labyrinth

This entry is part 14 of 18 in the series Stoicism Practices

This entry is part 31 of 58 in the series Journey Through Stoicism

I walked the hospital garden and followed the path of grace. At the end a bronze plaque carried lines from Psalms nine and ten. Refuge for the oppressed. God hears the afflicted. The metal was warm under my hand. Nothing was fixed. Yet something in me settled enough to breathe.

The Stoics call it the View from Above. Rise in your mind. See the room, the floor, the building, the town, the small blue world. The pain stays real, but it finds its size. From there the next right act appears. Ask a clear question. Hold a hand. Eat. Pray. Sleep if you can. The practice pairs with the dichotomy of control and with evening reflection. It opens the frame, then helps you learn from the day.

Tomorrow I head to Boone while my sister and a caregiver sit with Mom. Those mountains have taught me to climb, look, and return. The Wesleyan way names that rhythm as grace. Action without contemplation is unrooted. Contemplation without action is inconsequential. In a brittle season for our republic, this practice steadies my voice and keeps my heart useful.

Featured Places Kings Mountain Stoicism

A Flicker Toward Life

August 22, 2025August 23, 2025 B. John 1750 Views 0 Comments Seneca, Grace, Journaling, Evening Reflection, Massimo Pigliucci, Wesleyan faith, Epictetus, James Stockdale, Marcus Aurelius, Resilience

This entry is part 28 of 58 in the series Journey Through Stoicism

It was one of those days that left me both drained and restless. The kind of day that yanks you in every direction and leaves you replaying every moment in your head. By the time I sat down to journal, the day already felt like a blur—frustration, hard choices, and a fragile spark of hope all tangled together. Writing helped me find its shape. The Stoics would call it evening reflection. Wesleyans might call it examen or discernment. Either way, it’s how I pulled a heavy, scattered day into some kind of order.
That night, I saw a flicker of determination in my mom’s words. She had been saying for weeks, “I’m tired, I’m ready to go.” But this time she spoke of rehab, of getting better. It wasn’t conviction, but it mattered. Seneca once said, “Sometimes even when the body is weak, the mind can still rally.” I saw that rally in her, small though it was.
And along the way, there was gratitude—even humor. A friend had kept me talking for nearly ninety minutes on the road, filling the time with what he called his “landscaping philosophy.” Later, when I thanked him for knowing I needed company, he laughed. “You’re giving me too much credit. I just found someone willing to listen to me drone on about mulch and hedges.” That laughter mattered. Gratitude mattered. In days like this, even the smallest things carry weight.

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