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No matter how happy, how successful, how loved a person is in their lifetime, they will inevitably come up against their share of obstacles. The richest man in the world may never know what it's like to be truly loved. A man with a beautiful, devoted wife could easily find himself penniless and unable to provide for her.
Who's suffering is greater? It's an easy question to ask. But how easy is it to answer? It's easy to resent the rich man for being dissatisfied with a life that most of us dream about. And it's easy to pity the man who suddenly finds himself unable to give the girl of his dreams the life she deserves. But ask a rich man the same question, and you may, when he speaks of a penniless man receiving the unconditional love of a caring woman, hear the same envy in his voice that you yourself feel when you think of his life of luxury.
Hardship, like most things worth considering, is not measurable. There are many who wear their suffering as a badge of honor, as impenetrable moral armor. The greater their suffering, the greater the height from which they can look down on those around them. But do they see the suffering of those they hold beneath them? Does a woman whose baby was killed in a car accident understand the suffering of a teenager who just made a bad score on the SAT? Can we say that her suffering has higher priority? That hers is somehow nobler?
Consider again the rich man who has never known love, and the poor man with the beautiful wife. Imagine now that the rich man has decided to seek love out himself by spreading kindness and joy in every place that he can. He opens homeless shelters, makes donations to schools and hospitals, and reads to underprivileged children. The joy that he creates around him fills the void in his heart, and he becomes truly happy. This newfound happiness is evident by a change in his demeanor, a glow that wasn't there before. A glow that is evident to the widowed mother of one of the underprivileged children the man reads to every Saturday. The rich man sees the sorrow in the widowed mother's eyes, the burden she bears for the sake of her son. They begin to talk and spend time together, and the rich man's glow reminds her that she has much to be thankful for. She has a beautiful son, and, though it is not easy, the means to provide for him and for herself. It is not long before the rich man and the widowed woman fall in love and spend the rest of their days in peaceful bliss.
Now imagine that the poor man, lulled into complacency by the unconditional love of his beautiful wife, drags his feet in his search for new work. He knows she will still love him when he comes home, so feels no urgency in providing for her. Instead he drowns his sorrows with liquor, and depends on his caring wife to take care of him. The wife, too sweet to leave this destitute man alone to fend for himself, sells herself on the street to support him. The man squanders away every penny she makes for more booze. She suffers under the burden she bears for the sake of her ruined husband, and her sanity begins to falter. Walking through the door of their apartment in the wee hours of the morning, she discovers that the husband she's suffered so much to support has drunk himself to death. Insane with grief, she climbs the stairs to the roof of their building and throws herself over the edge.
Now whose suffering is nobler? The rich man? The poor man? The devoted wife? The wife's suffering was tragic, but did she learn anything from it? Did she help anyone by throwing away her dignity and self respect? Or did her blind love enable her husband to destroy them both?
What did the poor man do with his suffering? Did it help him grow? Did it make him noble and deserving of the unconditional love of a beautiful woman? Or did he use it as an excuse not to care about anything or anyone, including himself?
And what about the rich man? Was his suffering any less because he had mountains upon mountains of material things to comfort him? Were his efforts to spread love and joy as far as he could reach any less noble because he was rich? Or did he take his suffering and make something good out of it, use it not only to grow, but to help others grow as well?
Every challenge that life places before you is an opportunity in disguise. You could let it crush you, but destroying yourself doesn't help anyone at the end of the day. Moving forward with your life, finding ways to grow and learn from the obstacles in your path, and helping others to do the same are the ways to make your suffering noble.
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Posted by TheJosh on 2008-08-13 02:28:58 | Rating: | Views: 41
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Agreed! It doesn't matter how rich we are, how loved we are, what great job we have, its always something in our way.
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Posted by Plakola
on 2008-08-13 14:10:31
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I thought about writing someting similar to this blog.
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Posted by Plakola
on 2008-08-13 14:11:27
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