How is a war won? Two years into the war, the chief psychiatrist of the Rehabilitation Center “Unbroken” in Lviv, Ukraine, said to the volunteers who wished to work 12-hour shifts:
“If you work yourselves to death for twelve hours a day, you’ll end up in the psychiatric ward as my patients.”
These people were driven by the most natural instinct we all feel in times of crisis — to prioritize duty over joy. When you see so much need and suffering around you, you think: “I will put off joy and first do what must be done.”
And yet, according to the Ukrainian philosopher Alexander Filonenko, this is a grave mistake. Those who make duty their first priority never truly fulfill it. Duty is never accomplished from a mere sense of duty. Those who try to “white-knuckle” adversity inevitably fail.
Interestingly, after the war began, bookstores in Ukraine quickly ran out of books by the Stoics. The common misconception about the Stoics is that they teach how to endure adversity through willpower. It is not true.
Stoicism is more about joy than willpower.
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.16
Stoicism is not so much about self-denial as about changing your thoughts. Stoics are not the stone-faced people. They’re those who actively work on changing their thinking.
“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views they take of things.” — Epictesus
The only way to endure a crisis is to do the most counter-intuitive thing — prioritize joy over duty. The only way to survive hell is to keep enough visions of heaven before your eyes. Those who focus on duty never fulfill their duty. Those who focus on joy cannot help but fulfill it.
What do war-injured people need the most? Medical care? Supplies? Prosthetics? “UNBROKEN” answers: beauty. Beauty is the only force that revitalizes the soul and helps the body heal. It is the only power that can lift a person from the ashes. That is why UNBROKEN invites orchestras, ensembles, and individual musicians to perform for patients right inside the rehabilitation center.
So far, they have hosted the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Lviv National Philharmonic, held various concerts connected to veteran and wounded-soldier rehabilitation, and, in one 2023 performance, classical musicians played beside wounded soldiers. And more continue to come.
To survive, one must thrive. Survival can never be achieved by aiming at survival. When our world crumbles, we must do the most counter-intuitive thing — turn our gaze to Beauty. Beauty is the only thing that truly “changes our thoughts.”
“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.” — Marcus Aurelius
What is the color of my soul today? It takes on the color of my thoughts — always. No war is won by endurance alone. It is won when I immerse my soul in the colors of joy and allow meaning to transform my thoughts.
