r/Stoic

Stoicism helped me save a life. A few months back I read an article in the local town paper about a local woman who was in need of a live liver donor. She has a genetic liver disease for the past 26 years and is now in stage 4 cirrhosis. She was slowly dying and in desperate need. I said to myself “well someone will do it” I paused, and thought “yeah, SOMEONE has do it.”

I looked up what a live liver donor entails. They take 70% of your liver and give it to her, the recipient, and your liver grows back. There are no long term affects and essentially no death rate. She has a 95% success rate.

After lots of pre-op testing etc. a few weeks ago I had the surgery and donated part of my liver to her and we are both doing great!

I said to everyone that to me this was temporary pain for someone to live. I couldn’t think of a reason not to do this. And it was all worth it. The first couple weeks were tough. I’m still tired because my liver is growing back but I would absolutely do it again. All my thoughts on this came back to stoic virtues of Courage and Justice. She needed this, 17 others tried but were either not a match or ghosted her. I was the only one to stay around. I never wavered. There are so many times in our lives where we do small just things. Those are great. Sometimes that opportunity comes along where it costs real pain, but you need to have the courage to pull through for justice. For a benefit that far outweighs your sacrifice.

I have two young boys. My oldest who is 6 told me when I asked if he thought it was worth it even though it’s going to be painful to me for a little bit. He said “well yeah you are going to save her life, duh”. That makes it worth it as well.

If anyone is interested please visit: https://liverfoundation.org/liver-diseases/treatment/living-donor-liver-transplant-information-center/

Stoicism helped me save a life. A few months back I read an article in the local town paper about a local woman who was in need of a live liver donor. She has a genetic liver disease for the past 26 years and is now in stage 4 cirrhosis. She was slowly dying and in desperate need. I said to myself “well someone will do it” I paused, and thought “yeah, SOMEONE has do it.”

I looked up what a live liver donor entails. They take 70% of your liver and give it to her, the recipient, and your liver grows back. There are no long term affects and essentially no death rate. She has a 95% success rate.

After lots of pre-op testing etc. a few weeks ago I had the surgery and donated part of my liver to her and we are both doing great!

I said to everyone that to me this was temporary pain for someone to live. I couldn’t think of a reason not to do this. And it was all worth it. The first couple weeks were tough. I’m still tired because my liver is growing back but I would absolutely do it again. All my thoughts on this came back to stoic virtues of Courage and Justice. She needed this, 17 others tried but were either not a match or ghosted her. I was the only one to stay around. I never wavered. There are so many times in our lives where we do small just things. Those are great. Sometimes that opportunity comes along where it costs real pain, but you need to have the courage to pull through for justice. For a benefit that far outweighs your sacrifice.

I have two young boys. My oldest who is 6 told me when I asked if he thought it was worth it even though it’s going to be painful to me for a little bit. He said “well yeah you are going to save her life, duh”. That makes it worth it as well.

If anyone is interested please visit: https://liverfoundation.org/liver-diseases/treatment/living-donor-liver-transplant-information-center/

guys im new to reddit and stoicism itself.Im into philosphy but i want more and i want to know more about stoicism.Please give me advice on where to start from.

Thanky you

So I just started learning about stoicism for 2 weeks and I think I know a solid amount about it but never read the books. what are the first 5 books I should read

It's been 10 years since I stumbled upon Meditations, and thanks to the fact that I was already casually studying psychology and a bit of philosophy for a few years, I was able to follow the book and got hooked on Stoic practice.

I have since read the letters of Seneca and then decided to make a quick stop in modern time with "The Practicing Stoic" as a way to check my own understanding and see if my own Stoic practice is close to what is intended, and I mostly found I was on the right path.

But now I only have Epictetus to read, and I have avoided him for a reason, while Senca says stuff like "a man who didn't grieve is a lucky man not a more stoic man" from my basic understanding of Epictetus he would say death is out of our control so we shouldn't grieve.

Now, from my basic understanding of Epictetus life his views make sense to me; he is a free slave who was probably born into it or at least became one at a young age. When nothing is ever in your control, it is much easier to "let go" of it since you've been practicing since childhood with no real choice in the matter.

In the modern western world I feel we do have so much control over our life, even the option to walk away from anything is not an option people in rome had. I am not sure how much Epictetus teachings will help me, or create logical conflicts I might have to struggle with for a while. If it's the latter I wonder how you guys have made Epictetus' teachings work in the modern world.

How would you deal with being forced to move teams?

At work, we have three teams: A, B and C.

Someone in Team B has wanted to move to Team A (my team) for some time, but hasn't been able to because there were no positions available. Similarly, someone in Team C wants to move to Team B.

I was previously asked if I wanted to move teams, but I declined because I was happy where I was. I've now found out that I'm being forced to move.

I'm struggling with the fact that I was given a choice before and said no, while others actively want to move into different teams.

From a Stoic perspective, how would you approach this?

Thank you.

The simulation theory and Stoicism are two ideas that really interest me so I've been thinking of how they would work together.

So for the sake of this post let's that this life is some kind of simulation, and we're here to experience difficulty and develop something through it.

I think Stoicism makes a lot of sense as part of the system.

You enter with a character and a set of circumstances. And once you're here, you can't control most of what happens around you. But you can control how you respond to it.

Maybe adversity isn't something going wrong with the simulation. Maybe dealing with it is part of the reason we're here.

So I'm curious how Stoics would look at that idea and what purpose you all think Stoicism might serve

I recently bought The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman. I’m interested in becoming more rational and changing the way I think about things. For those who have read it, what did you think of the book? Did you actually find it useful or change the way you think in any way?

I want to begin reading philosophy . Can anyone recommend a book that will be a good beginning?

Wife and I are going through separation. We’ve been married for 5 years, and have one kiddo together who is now 6 and is special needs. She brought it up several months ago that she is no longer in love with me, and no more intimacy, feels bored and wants to be alone. I feel as though there is something fundamentally wrong with me. I’m 39M, wife is 34F.

How do I process this, in addition to having to start over financially? She is being gracious and letting me get back on my feet, I was unemployed for over a year and recently started new job thankfully. Just sucks living and laying next to someone who ultimately is a good person, but no longer wants to be with you in marriage. My heart just hurts. Our kiddo will be crushed when I finally move out at some point. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I just want to be a good man and a good person. Maybe to be wanted to be a woman again someday? I just feel alone in all of this.