"I’m 56. I Lost My Faith, But I Found Strength in Stoicism"

Keith was 56, living in New York, working as a youth empowerment coach. Then his daughter needed help after ankle surgery, so he moved to Virginia for what he thought would be a couple of weeks. Two years later, he was still there. Six surgeries. A diagnosis of complex regional pain syndrome. A daughter in and out of hospitals, most recently for six straight weeks. Keith slept on the couch of her one-bedroom apartment, cooked, cleaned, managed the household, and took care of her dog. He did all of it while watching someone he loved suffer in ways he could not fix.

That suffering did something unexpected. It dismantled his faith. Keith describes himself as a conservative Jew, but after two years of watching his daughter endure what he calls "too much suffering," he lost belief in a higher power. "I see God as a construct," he says. "I'm a good soul. I am. And just too much suffering." He still believes in fate, in the universe working in certain ways. But the God he grew up with is gone. What replaced that structure was Stoicism.