Life’s lessons can be learned in a myriad of ways. Stoicism resonates with many people because they find it applicable to what they’re experiencing in life, but

Life’s lessons can be learned in a myriad of ways. Stoicism resonates with many people because they find it applicable to what they’re experiencing in life, but that brings the implication with it that many people are bound to discover the same insights. This has happened since time immemorial, and ideas are reborn, repackaged, re-contextualized for a new era. Stoicism also comes loaded with shoulds and shouldn’ts as they pertain to living a “virtuous life”, and for many people, this is too close to religious dogma for comfort. Put another way, there are many people who might benefit from the ideas but would bristle at the thought of turning to something that resembles religion. But the underlying philosophical insights that can be found in stoicism can be also found across many other contemplative traditions. When reading a piece like this, I don’t find it particularly interesting to try to reduce the author’s personal discoveries to “oh that’s just <philosophy>”. Many people find the stories of others helpful because they’re less abstract and heady than a series of intellectually sound ideas that might not feel very helpful when someone is going through the shit. I’d argue that you missed the point of the piece. Knowing that stoicism (or Buddhism, etc…) exist doesn’t seem to have any bearing on the recollection of one’s personal journey. Some people are looking for a philosophy of life. Some people are just looking for comfort in knowing that others have experienced something that validates their own pain. And some people share their own journeys to make/find meaning in the pain, and it is this sharing that is more interesting than its resemblance to famous ideas.