Suffering. Perspective. Gratitude.
How we suffer tends to adapt to our reality. If we become accustomed to first-class travel, we may suffer when sitting in coach. This isn’t something wrong with us, it’s human nature. We need to watch out for hedonic adaptation and choose our comforts wisely.
It has been quite cold where I live this week. That doesn’t change the fact that my dog still needs her walks. So, out I go. Suffering as my body turns numb.
I happen to also be reading Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. He faced many hardships in Nazi concentration camps including backbreaking manual labor in the cold of winter. Unlike me, he had no gloves, no shoes, no nutrition, and no cozy fire to warm up to. I think of Frankl and his comrades, and then I give myself a face-punch back to reality (a la Mr. Money Mustache).
Despite my frozen fingers, I have A LOT to be grateful for. I don’t mean to turn life into a suffering competition; we all have the right to suffer in our cozy circumstances. But I do find that the occasional reminder of the challenging conditions my fellow humans have endured with as much dignity and purpose as they can muster inspires me to bear my own small challenges as stoically as I can manage.
