Have I lost you yet?
In my reading and learning about stoic philosophy, it occurred to me that people who are good first responders are stoic. They have to be - at least when they are facing a life-threatening situation.
A police officer arrives at the scene of a shooting. A firefighter arrives at three o’clock in the morning to a residential house fire, with flames blowing out of the window. The paramedic/EMT arrives to a heart attack with family members distraught and looking on.
If you have ever had the opportunity to observe these individuals at work, on the scene of what is probably the worst moment in someone’s life, what you will see is a person who is calm yet determined. You don’t want your savior to be running around emotionally out of control. They are assessing the situation - sizing it up. They are quickly deciding what additional resources they will need to mitigate the emergency. They use their voice over the radio to set the tone for others responding in. Those other responders will be able to determine if it is an urgent situation just by the calm but determined voice of the first on-scene.
A stoic is prepared to face adversities. First responders have to endure adverse conditions: think storms, wind, heat, cold, and snow. Obstacles have to be overcome. Go over it. Go around it. Go under it. There is a victim trapped on the 12th floor, aerials can’t reach. We’re going to the roof and descend by rope. First responders can’t give up, and they don’t. The stoics teach to be calm, almost without emotion. As a first responder, they are channeling those emotions into an appropriate response. That teaching, stoicism, is extremely hard to control, however, when it’s their own personal life in danger. Perfectly understandable.
To be clear, I’m not advocating that all first responders should adhere to a strict study of stoicism. As described above, I merely had thoughts on what makes a good first responder at that moment of facing a life-threatening situation.
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