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Can You Be a Stoic and a Political Activist?

September 26, 2026 B. John 68 Views 0 Comments common good, Political Division, Democracy, Stoicism, civic responsibility, justice, Political Activism

This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Can you be a Stoic and still be politically active? I think the answer is not only yes, but that Stoicism gives us a better way to do it. The ancient Stoics did not confuse acceptance with surrender. They accepted what could not be changed, while challenging injustice when action was still possible.

That question feels especially urgent now. We are living in a time when division itself has become a political tool. Culture war fights can dominate attention while people are still struggling with housing, health care, violence, war, and the basic question of whether government can still solve real problems. Anger may be useful in campaigns. It is rarely enough to build a decent society.

Stoicism asks something harder of us. Stay engaged without becoming consumed. Think clearly when others are trying to provoke you. Act with courage when something is wrong. Keep justice at the center. And remember that the people on the other side of a political argument are still part of the same community.

Politics, at its best, is what we choose to do together. This essay asks what Stoicism can teach us about showing up for that shared life, especially when the temptation is to give up, tune out, or shout louder.

Featured Stoicism

Wisdom: Whittling Away at Uncertainty

September 20, 2026September 20, 2026 B. John 115 Views 0 Comments Reflection, wisdom, decision-making, uncertainty, judgment, self-knowledge, experience, Stoicism

This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism

This entry is in the series The Stoic Virtues

How do we know when we are wise?

I have been thinking about that question because wisdom may be the hardest Stoic virtue to define. Courage, justice, and temperance all give us something concrete to work with. Wisdom feels different. We rarely have all the information we want, yet life still requires us to decide, act, adjust, and sometimes admit we were wrong.

In Whittling Away at Uncertainty, I look at some decisions I would make differently today, a new job I am about to begin, and what experience has taught me about research, judgment, and knowing when enough information is enough. Wisdom may not be about certainty. It could be learning how to make the best decision we can, then having the courage to begin.

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What the Moment Asks

September 8, 2026September 7, 2026 B. John 210 Views 1 Comment Leadership, personal growth, Practical Wisdom, Phronesis, judgment, flexibility, discernment, Stoicism

This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism

The right decision is not always the one written in the policy manual. Years ago, I suspended one of my best employees rather than take the next prescribed step: firing him. The suspension worked, the employee corrected the problem, and only afterward did I learn that company policy did not allow what I had done.

The Greeks called the wisdom needed in uncertain situations phronesis. It is a form of practical wisdom that is shaped by experience, judgment, and a willingness to reconsider what is required. It helped me know when to depart from a policy, when to abandon a carefully designed plan, and when maintaining my health was enough during my mother’s final illness.

In “What the Moment Asks,” I explore the wisdom needed when rules and plans can’t provide the whole answer. It’s a kind of wisdom that listens, accepts correction, and turns experience into lessons we carry forward.

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What We Owe the Worker

September 7, 2026 B. John 194 Views 0 Comments Stoicism, justice, labor rights, common good, unions, Labor Day, dignity of work, Workers

This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism

People often see Labor Day as just the end of summer, but its history asks us to remember something more. The day began with workers fighting for safer workplaces, better pay, reasonable hours, and the right to organize. Those fights were never only about economics. They were about dignity.

The Stoics didn’t write about labor rights as we know them, but they believed strongly in justice, cooperation, and the common good. Marcus Aurelius reminded himself that people are meant to work together, and that harm to the community eventually harms everyone. This idea matters now, when many workers still have little control over their pay, safety, schedules, or ability to organize.

This Labor Day, let’s consider what Stoicism can still teach us about work, the value of workers, and what we owe each other in a society that says it honors labor.

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The Friends Who Walk With Us

August 30, 2026August 30, 2026 B. John 375 Views 2 Comments Friendship, sympatheia, lifelong friends, grief and friendship, human connection, Gratitude, Stoicism, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca

This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism

Some friendships stretch across decades. Others arrive for a season, bringing exactly what we need at the time. A little wisdom. A little laughter. A place to rest. A reminder of who we are when life gets noisy.

In The Friends Who Walk With Us, I reflect on the people who have shaped my life, from friends who knew me when I was young to newer friendships formed in this latest season of change. Some are still close. Some have drifted. Some are gone. Yet each left something behind.

The Stoics understood friendship as part of a good life. Seneca wrote about loyal friendship; Marcus Aurelius about our deep connection to one another. Over time, I’ve come to see that friendship does more than comfort us. It changes us. We carry forward the patience, courage, humor, kindness, and wisdom others once gave us.

And maybe that’s part of the quiet duty of friendship. To receive what others give us.

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When Home Changes Hands

August 25, 2026 B. John 256 Views 1 Comment Stoicism, home, Kings Mountain, grief, Family, Memory

This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism

Today, the house I called home for at least 62 years belongs to someone else. The deed has changed hands, yet the rooms still hold holidays, family gatherings, neighborhood friends, and snow days spent sledding down the street. Somewhere in my memory, the treehouse is still waiting in the backyard, and Mom is still inside making space for us.

Grief comes in pieces, and sometimes one of those pieces is a place. Selling the house feels like another small loss, arriving nearly a year after Mom’s death. The house still stands, but I can no longer return to it as home.

Some pieces came with me to Tampa, including Mom’s porch rocker and my grandfather’s mantel clock. The rest must live in memory now. “When Home Changes Hands” is about letting go of a place that helped form me and hoping the next family fills it with the same warmth, safety, and love that Mom gave us.

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A Softer Kind of Courage

August 4, 2026 B. John 251 Views 0 Comments Resilience, Acceptance, Temperance, uncertainty, control, Courage, emotional strength, inner calm, Stoicism

This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism

What if strength does not always look like pushing harder?

In this new essay, I reflect on the habit of staying busy when financial pressure, uncertainty, and professional pride start to feel heavy. Being active can help us move forward, but it can also keep us from facing what’s already there. A surprising lesson from the human lungs opened another way of thinking about courage, one built around softness, space, and the wisdom to release what we can’t control.

The Stoics never asked us to become rigid. They asked us to see clearly, act where we can, and stop exhausting ourselves against what will not move. A Softer Kind of Courage is about learning when effort serves us, when it becomes avoidance, and why sometimes the bravest thing we can do is pause long enough to breathe.

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True Joy Is a Serious Thing

July 16, 2026 B. John 512 Views 2 Comments nostalgia, Music, attention, true joy, ordinary days, Pictures at an Exhibition, Stoicism, Meaning, Seneca

This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism

For years, the Latin phrase Res severa est verum gaudium has appeared at the bottom of my personal letterhead. I understood it to mean, “True joy is a serious thing,” and I loved the way it gave joy weight. Only recently did I learn that the words came from Seneca.

That discovery opened the door to a deeper reflection on the difference between happiness and joy. From the grand ending of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition to a quiet hillside in Boone, this essay explores the kind of joy that carries memory, beauty, loss, gratitude, and meaning all at once.

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The Decision Was Mine-The Outcome Was Not

June 18, 2026 B. John 470 Views 1 Comment Stoicism, Resilience, Dichotomy of Control, wisdom, regret, decision-making, uncertainty, job loss, self-respect

This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism

Lately, life has been asking for more decisions than usual. Not small ones, but the kind that seem to carry a future inside them. Work. Money. Health insurance. A parent’s care. A funeral. An estate. What to keep. What to let go. What to protect. What to release. In this season, I have learned that decision-making is not only a matter of logic. It also carries emotional weight, especially when the outcome remains uncertain.

In this essay, I reflect on a difficult job-search decision that still brings occasional regret, and how Stoic philosophy helps me think about it more clearly. The Stoics remind us that we can control the care, judgment, and integrity we bring to a decision. We cannot control the outcome. That distinction does not eliminate uncertainty, but it does offer a kind of mercy. Sometimes the best we can do is choose honestly from the place where we stand, then release what was never fully ours to command.

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What We Choose Together

June 12, 2026June 12, 2026 B. John 813 Views 1 Comment government, justice, Civic Engagement, common good, Faith250, Citizenship, The New Colossus, public life, Stoicism

This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism

Politics can make otherwise reasonable people turn strange. It can harden conversations, flatten human beings into talking points, and tempt us into anger, contempt, or despair. But avoiding public life entirely is also a moral choice. If government is, as Barney Frank once said, “the things we choose to do together,” then citizenship is one of the places where our values become visible.

This essay reflects on a recent Citizen Engagement training at Hyde Park United Methodist, the beginning of the Faith250 series, and Emma Lazarus’s “The New Colossus” as a way into a larger question: what does a Stoic owe to public life? The answer is not withdrawal. It is disciplined participation, rooted in justice, guided by wisdom, restrained by temperance, and sustained by courage.

The Stoic citizen does not control the whole outcome. But we can still show up with clarity. We can still speak truth without surrendering to hatred. We can still widen the circle, lift a lamp, and choose together as wisely and justly as we can.

Featured image for Tuition of Regret a graduation celebration

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The Tuition of Regret

June 2, 2026 B. John 510 Views 0 Comments Friendship, Stoicism, Resilience, Reflection, personal growth, wisdom, regret, last great days, Memento Mori

This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism

Most of us have regrets, whether we admit them or not. A word spoken too sharply. A kindness withheld. A friendship allowed to drift. A warning sign ignored until it was too late. We may like the idea of living with “no regrets,” but that has always struck me as too clean. If we have lived fully, loved deeply, failed honestly, or hurt someone along the way, regret eventually finds us.

In this essay, I explore regret through the lens of Stoicism, Daniel Pink’s work on The Power of Regret, and my own recent life. I have come to think of regret as life’s tuition. Nobody wants to pay it. Sometimes it is painfully expensive. But if we refuse to learn the lesson, we pay the tuition and never receive the education.

The Stoics did not ask us to deny regret or drown in it. They asked us to examine it, learn from it, make amends where we can, and then lay it down. Regret is not meant to become a permanent home. It is a classroom. The lesson may be to call the friend, offer the apology, act sooner, speak more gently, or create new great days while we still can.

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