Sweat, tears, and blood. Unless you are pushed to your edge and override basic human instinct, your ego does its best to protect itself from those 3 human afflictions. We (I speak for those who are in a developed nation with disposable income) are given every luxury our predecessors couldn't afford, yet the modern Great Depression is a spiritual war within ourselves. It is better to rid reality through meaningless scrolling and unproductive online banter than to dust off an old pair of shoes and experience a temporary painful reality. It seems like many are productive at being unproductive because there is a lack of intentional suffering that would encourage an individual to grow.
The force of good does not exist without the force of bad to counteract it, and vice versa. I say this because paradoxically, our society's enhancements in productivity bring forward an unfortunate truth - through the acceleration of productivity, we condition ourselves to make less difficult choices. Want to avoid embarrassment and rejection when asking out a person of interest? Barriers for entry are low, your dating pool choices are plentiful, and emotional stakes are nowhere as high as they would be in person - there’s an app for that. Of course, a machine that can perform open heart surgery at 100% efficacy is better than the most talented, steady-handed surgeon, and this has its merits (although perhaps, we lose our touch and understanding of the implications of which human-induced resuscitation brings - there is beauty to this). In the above two examples, one choice reduces purposeful suffering that builds character, while the other reduces unnecessary suffering in order to prolong life.
Suffering should be done with intention. Choosing why you suffer and what you suffer for illuminates Nietzsch’s thoughts on the subject, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how”. Suffering does take courage because it doesn’t guarantee that what you suffer for will be paid off in time. You suffer now to reap whatever rewards you aim to reach later, but such a wish may only remain that - a wish. I encourage myself and others to accumulate battle scars. Business failures, lost loves, hell, even small moments of suffering for no reason to remember what the human condition is. Whatever river you are crossing in this game of life, fall in sometimes, splash around, and get back on the log.
The following is a poem that I deeply resonate with:
I don’t want to be demure or respectable
After Mary Oliver
There is no joy in the abstinence of living.
I will not be revered for modesty or reservation,
for numbing hunger, desire, rage, grief, delight.
I have liberated myself from golden handcuffs
and self-imposed fear.
Give me love. Give me heartbreak.
Give me failure. Give me regret.
Give me adventure. Give me scar tissue.
Let each cicatrice be the price I pay for rewilding.
D. COFFYN
Comments