Nicholas Higgins 11/05/2020

The Furnace of Affliction

‘Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul’, John Keats

The loss of loved ones, debilitating illnesses, personal betrayals, financial reversals, all of these will fall upon you if you live life to its full term. Grief, heartache, disappointment, struggle; these are all part of the program. 

In its naturalistic rendering of the world, however, the West sees suffering as a chance misfortune. It cannot be a good chapter in your life story, only an interruption of it. It’s an evil hiccup, to be avoided, minimised and eliminated. Suffering puts the prize of the secular materialist, pursuit of pleasure, comfort and individual freedom, in deep jeopardy. Said materialist eases this pain by the removal of as many stressors as possible; take a day off, have a drink, do more exercise, surround yourself with positive relationships. He refers to ‘experts’, whether medical, phycological, social or civil, to alleviate it. 

This zeal for avoiding suffering is surprising considering how easy we have it. In Medieval Europe, 1 in 5 new borns died before their first birthday. With no vaccines, government safety nets or technological conveniences, life was short and painful. C. S. Lewis said that if our ancestors could see us today, they’d be shocked by our ‘softness, worldliness and timidity’. 

Older and non-western cultures, however, see suffering as a meaningful part of life. Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam tell their members that suffering is the key to moving toward your main purpose in life. Whether that is spiritual growth, mastery of oneself, the achievement of honour, or the promotion of the forces of good. 

They all admit that suffering will happen. It’s ineradicable, indiscriminate and universal. However, instead of treating this inevitable fact as an odious interruption on life, to be broomed under the carpet, it’s seen as an opportunity to move toward some greater good. They have a point and purpose to how they bear their cross, and this makes it worth carrying. This is a more constructive and positive approach to suffering. As Nietzsche put it, ‘he who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how’.

Interestingly, this is illuminated in the secular endeavours of some great fictional and non-fictional individuals. Nelson Mandela lost 27 years of his life to South African prisons. In Homer’s Odyssey, Ulysses spent 10 years fending off mystical creatures and the wrath of Gods. In J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Sam and Frodo faced the perils of ork infested Middle Earth. In each case they eventually emerged out of their pain because they had a why. Mandela to make South Africa a non-racial state, Ulysses to be reunited with family in Ithaca, Sam and Frodo to destroy the ‘one ring to rule them all’. They all had an aim that strengthened them to bear the terrible how of their existence.

The key then, is to see a point to your suffering. Naturally a ‘guiding purpose’ in life is a wholly personal thing, so it wouldn’t do to elaborate further here. Still, you can have a ‘point’ to your suffering by treating it, to use the overused term, as ‘character building’. Just as Christians, Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus treat it as a spiritual building one. Suffering in itself is meaningless, but how you respond to it can give it great meaning. 

As Paul puts it in Romans 5 , ‘suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character, hope’. Iron is only given its power and flexibility by being forged in fire, then hammered, struck, pounded and bent by the smith. No tree which the wind does not often blow against is firm and strong; for it is stiffened by the very act of being shaken, and plants its roots more securely. These might be timeworn proverbs, but they stand true.

Struggle is an opportunity for some Churchillian resolution. In Ulysses’s and Sam and Frodo’s adventures, their resolve remained unshaken through thick and thin. Instead of cowing away, they looked their challenges in the eye and refused to blink. To quote Tennyson, they were ‘made weak by time and fate’, but remained, ‘strong in will, to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield’. Yet it was only through trial that they could demonstrate such resolution. By putting themselves to the test, they learnt what they could do.

This leads to transformative mouldings. Sam and Frodo, from innocent, rural boys, to world worn, hardy Hobbits. Proud and lusty Ulysses, to the epitome of Greek ‘manlihood’. 27 years in prison changed Mandela’s view of what it would take to move the country forward after the end of apartheid. ‘If I had allowed myself to become bitter, I would have died in prison’, he said. His suffering forced him not to give into hate, which ultimately lead him to adopt the reconciliation policies that would allow the country to heal. Truly, out of the greatest tests come the greatest testimonies.

Without pain how can we know joy? Only once you have passed through the darkest valleys can you recognise those things you’ve always taken for granted. In Night, Ellie Wiesl’s autobiographical account of the Holocaust, he recalls how he envied those prisoners who had toothbrushes, clothesbrushes, mattresses, and monthly mail. Only when these simple things were stripped away from him, did he come to appreciate their value. As a more trivial comparison, now that pubs are closed, the foregone pint down at the local is relished by millions as a thing of the past. Times of toil force upon you an attitude of gratitude.

Suffering gives you perspective. Having come through a year long bout of depression, my father has himself said how it’s broken down his pride and forced him to empathise. Having gone through the mill himself, he knows what its like, he’s been in that black hole of despair with no way out. Experiences like this make you more compassionate and more grounded. Plato’s quote, ‘be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle’, takes on a greater resonance for someone like my dad.

This is not to say we should seek out suffering in some masochistic pursuit of self-destruction. But rather, that we need an attitude re-adjustment to it. No matter the precautions you’ve taken, no matter how rich, powerful or successful you are, pain will always rear its ugly head. It makes you human, and if you try too hard to avoid it, you end up avoiding life completely. 

Better then, to be like Mandela, Ulysses, Sam and Frodo. Do not say, ‘I could never be like these people’, for the moment you do, you’ve lost the battle. Stand strong and take suffering for what it is. Face up to it positively and see it as your greatest teacher. Revolt against our age of ease, comfort and existential weightlessness, and bear your cross. The way in which we do so gives us ample opportunity - even under the most difficult circumstances - to add a deeper meaning to life.