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Sympatheia — The Web of Our Shared Humanity

September 3, 2025September 1, 2025 B. John 2626 Views 1 Comment Pope Leo XIV, compassion, interdependence, Social Justice, mortality, interconnectedness, Stoicism, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, sympatheia

This entry is part 32 of 47 in the series Journey Through Stoicism

There are moments when the illusion of standing alone falls away. Sitting at my mother’s bedside, I watched nurses adjust her blanket, a caregiver whisper encouragement, and my sister lean in to hold her hand. In that small room I saw a truth that philosophy and faith have long tried to teach. Our lives are braided together. The Stoics had a name for this: sympatheia, the recognition that we are bound together in a single web.

Marcus Aurelius urged himself to “meditate often on the interconnectedness and mutual interdependence of all things in the universe.” To him, nothing existed by itself. A hand could not live apart from the body, nor could a person live apart from others. Epictetus called it being a “citizen of the universe.” To forget this bond was to forget who we are.

In our own time, Pope Leo XIV put it this way: “The earth will rest, justice will prevail, the poor will rejoice, and peace will return, once we no longer act as predators but as pilgrims. No longer each of us for ourselves but walking alongside one another.” The Pope’s words echo the Stoics, calling us to remember that the fate of one is tied to the fate of all.

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The View from Above

August 29, 2025August 29, 2025 B. John 2422 Views 0 Comments social holiness, Stoicism, Boone, Evening Reflection, Dichotomy of Control, View from Above, labyrinth, hospital, Wesleyan, Memento Mori

This entry is part 31 of 47 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.

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The Stoic Practice of Patience

August 25, 2025August 23, 2025 B. John 2070 Views 0 Comments virtues, Courage, endurance, Time, waiting, Stoicism, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, patience

This entry is part 30 of 47 in the series Journey Through Stoicism

Hospitals are made of waiting. Waiting for a doctor to make rounds, for a test result to come back, for a mother’s breathing to even out after a restless night. The hours stretch and bend in odd ways. Days lose their shape, and with them the sense of routine that usually steadies a life. In these places, impatience often comes first. It’s that urge to will things forward, to force clarity, to find answers that simply will not arrive on command.
The Stoics did not count patience among their four cardinal virtues. Yet it lies within them all. Patience is the courage that endures hardship without losing hope. It is temperance that reins in anger. It is justice that waits to judge. And it is wisdom that discerns what cannot be rushed. To practice patience is to practice all the virtues at once.. Not passively, but as an active strength in the refusal to be ruled by time’s uneven pace.

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Am I A Stoic? AI Says…meh

August 24, 2025August 25, 2025 B. John 1900 Views 0 Comments funeral industry, Memento Mori, Stoicism, Marcus Aurelius, Enneagram, Type 7, AI conversation

This entry is part 29 of 47 in the series Journey Through Stoicism

I get some “Prompt-A-Day” emails. One asked for a 10-question Enneagram quiz. I’m fascinated by these personality tests, though I dislike taking them. This time, instead of answering it myself, I fed the prompt into Claude, an AI system, and answered the quiz it created. What followed was more interesting than I expected.

The analysis suggested I’m an Enneagram Type 7, “The Enthusiast.” Energetic, future-focused, quick to act, and sometimes scattered under stress. It also noted I may lean on a Type 6 wing, which adds loyalty and a concern about what others think. Claude then connected this to Stoicism and told me I had some Stoic tendencies—but also some traits that make the Stoic life harder.
That led to a deeper exchange about the practices I’ve been turning to during hard times. When asked which practice mattered most, I answered quickly: memento mori. For me, remembering death isn’t just philosophy. I grew up in the funeral industry, worked in it during the early days of the AIDS epidemic, and cared for friends in their final days. Those experiences taught me more about life than death—and made Stoic practice feel like coming home.

A quiet interstate at dawn seen through a lightly wet windshield, soft light on trees and sky.

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Expecting Trouble-Premeditatio Malorum

August 20, 2025August 20, 2025 B. John 2348 Views 1 Comment Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Resilience, Seneca, Premeditatio Malorum, Dichotomy of Control, Stoic practices, Gratitude, mental rehearsal, Stoicism

This entry is part 27 of 47 in the series Journey Through Stoicism

Trouble will come. That is not a threat. It is the world as it is. Premeditatio malorum is simple training for a steady heart. Picture what could go wrong. Picture your first response. Keep it short. Keep it concrete. You cannot script life. You can be ready to meet it. Then even hard days make room for small good things. A call from a friend. Light on the trees at dusk. Thanks for what remains.

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Embracing the Unforeseen

August 17, 2025 B. John 1378 Views 0 Comments Marcus Aurelius, Resilience, love, Acceptance, Family, Seneca, Dichotomy of Control, surprises, Stoicism, Epictetus

This entry is part 26 of 47 in the series Journey Through Stoicism

So I’ll drive north. I’ll carry with me a fortune cookie scrap of paper that turned out wiser than I expected. And I’ll try to remember that philosophy is not about lofty words on a page. It’s about how you hold yourself when the phone rings at 3 a.m., how you respond when plans dissolve, how you see both the bitter and the sweet.

Marcus and Seneca remind us: surprises are not intruders. They are part of the order of things. To embrace them is to live in step with nature itself.

And maybe that is the real fortune. Not that life will protect us from pain, but that it will give us endless chances to practice courage, patience, and love.

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Memento Mori: A Practice for the Living

August 16, 2025August 14, 2025 B. John 2901 Views 0 Comments mortality salience, Gratitude, Memento Mori, Stoicism, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, mortality reflection, life purpose, reconnecting with friends

This entry is part 25 of 47 in the series Journey Through Stoicism

We don’t know how much gas is left in the tank. That truth, far from morbid, can be a guide to living with gratitude, courage, and clarity.

Memento Mori is the Stoic reminder that life is finite. For me, it has meant fewer grudges, more calls to friends, and a better sense of when to set work aside. It has reminded me that my “last great days” may already have happened, or they may still be ahead—but I will only recognize them if I am paying attention.

This is not about fearing death. It is about remembering life. When we keep the end in view, even quietly, the days we have become more precious and more alive.

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Stoic Practices: The Dichotomy of Control

August 14, 2025August 13, 2025 B. John 1155 Views 0 Comments Stoicism, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, personal growth, Dichotomy of Control, Stoic practices, practical philosophy

This entry is part 24 of 47 in the series Journey Through Stoicism

The Dichotomy of Control teaches that some things are up to us and some are not. My own health journey and a job loss taught me that lesson in very different ways. Both proved the same point: act fully where you can, and accept what you cannot change.

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Rising from the Defeat That Wasn’t

July 28, 2025August 1, 2025 B. John 2392 Views 0 Comments Stoicism, Marcus Aurelius, Amor Fati, Seneca, Maya Angelou, Grace

This entry is part 19 of 47 in the series Journey Through Stoicism

Sometimes the worst defeats are the ones you didn’t cause but still feel responsible for. A job ends. A friendship slips away. You tell yourself it wasn’t your fault, but that doesn’t stop the questions. Maya Angelou once wrote that defeat might be necessary—not because we deserve it, but because it reveals who we really are. This essay reflects on regret and unexpected renewal through the lens of Stoic thought and lived experience. What you rise from, it turns out, may be the truest part of you.

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Boone, Facebook, and Marcus Aurelius…Oh My

July 23, 2025July 24, 2025 B. John 1253 Views 0 Comments Stoicism, Boone, Marcus Aurelius, Inspiration, Seneca, NC, Modern Wisdom, Healing Places, Reflection, Appalachian State

This entry is part 18 of 47 in the series Journey Through Stoicism

I came across a meme that read, “There are two places you need to go often: The place that heals you. The place that inspires you.” It struck me deeply, because for me, one of those places is Boone, North Carolina, where I went to college. But as I reflected on that idea through the lens of Stoic philosophy, I realized the Stoics might offer a very different kind of guidance: to go inward. This essay explores the contrast, and surprising harmony, between modern healing and ancient inner retreat.

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A Way Out of No Way: John Lewis and the Moral Will

July 20, 2025 B. John 2466 Views 1 Comment nonviolence, Selma, justice, Epictetus, Heather Cox Richardson, Civil Rights, Marcus Aurelius, moral courage, good trouble, Buddhist, Jewish justice, Abrahamic traditions, John Lewis, tikkun olam, Bodhisattva, Stoicism

This entry is part 17 of 47 in the series Journey Through Stoicism

“Lewis did not need a theory of justice. He lived one.”
Five years after the death of Congressman John Lewis, his words and witness still call us to the hard, necessary work of moral courage. Drawing from Christian theology, the Black church, and the discipline of nonviolence, Lewis embodied a philosophy of action that mirrors the core of Stoic thought—and resonates just as deeply with the teachings of Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. He did not merely protest injustice. He met it with clarity, hope, and a soul unshaken by cruelty. His legacy extends beyond American history. It is human wisdom.