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Suffering and the Pursuit of Virtue
How the hardships of life provide the building blocks for a virtuous character
“For most of us, there is nothing intrinsically noble about suffering. Just as failure is sometimes just failure (and not your path to becoming the next Steve Jobs), suffering is sometimes just destructive, to be exited or medicated as quickly as possible… But some people can connect their suffering to some greater design. They place their suffering in solidarity with all the others who have suffered. These people are clearly ennobled by it. It is not the suffering itself that makes all the difference, but the way it is experienced.”
David Brooks
The Road to Character
We wish to avoid suffering whenever possible. But no matter how hard we try, suffering does and will find us.
We lose loved ones. We lose jobs. We go hungry some nights. We struggle to find a place to live. We pursue a dream only to have it end in an instant.
