Practicing Stoicism

Last year I started to get interested in stoicism. It's an intriguing philosophy and one that I want to apply to my life. (I feel like there should be many asterisks here, as there is still a lot about it that I don't understand yet. Apply philosophy to your life at your own risk.)

One of the ideas I like is that difficulties in life are to be embraced, as they are an opportunity to practice living according to stoic virtues. Well, I've had lots of chances to practice this in the last week. On Monday, I had two crowns put on. It didn't go smoothly, and I was in the dentist's chair for four and a half hours, requiring the maximum amount of novocaine they were allowed to give me. Since I turned forty, I have averaged one major dental surgery per year, and during COVID I didn't have any, so it was about time.

The time after hasn't gone too well either. I'm still on a mostly liquid and ibuprofin diet, and in mild pain continuously. My dentist has now decided I need a root canal. Those words used to scare me, but this will be my third one. Moreover, I think I will be in less pain when they are done than I have been for the past week. And then there are temporary crowns and permanent crowns and heavens knows what other followup.

I've done a pretty good job staying calm and upbeat being told all this bad news. But the low grade continual pain is definitely wearing on me. I am immensely grateful for the modern miracles of painkillers and dentistry. Consider that for almost all of human history I would have lost most of my teeth by age forty, and I am looking pretty good. But I'll still be grateful when it's finally Wednesday and I can have that root canal.