Pain and Suffering

"The unawakened mind tends to make war against the way things are.  Without understanding, we can easily become frightened by life's fleeting changes, the inevitable losses, disappointments, the insecurity of our aging and death.  Misunderstanding leads us to fight against life, running from pain or grasping at security and pleasures that by their nature can never be truly satisfying.  We expend enormous energy denying our insecurity, fighting pain, death, and loss, and hiding from the basic truths of the natural world and of our own nature."  Jack Kornfeld in a chapter entitled "Stopping the War."

"Until now, our lives had been largely devoted from pain and problems.  We fled from them as from a plague.  We never wanted to deal with the fact of suffering.  Escape via the bottle was always our solution.  Character-building via suffering might be all right for saints, but it certainly didn't appeal to us."  Step 7 in a chapter entitled "Step 7."

I really like the use of the word "appeal."  I really like the word "plague."  I'm not crazy about the word "suffer" because there's too much slop in it that gives the whining alcoholic room to roam; otherwise why would we suffer so much over things that other people seem to handle in a mature and more normal fashion?  I do love the word "pain."  It's a good word.  Pain is inevitable.  Sorry, but pain is here to stay and whether the pain causes you to suffer is, to a large degree, up to you.

Here you go . . . 

Appeal:      To arouse a sympathetic response; the power to attract, interest, amuse or stimulate the mind or emotions.

Plague:       A contagious disease that spreads rapidly and kills many people; an unusually large number of insects or animals infesting a place and causing damage; a disastrous evil or affliction.

Pain:         A signal to your nervous system that something may be wrong, such as a prick, sting, burn, tingle or ache.

Suffer:       To submit to or be forced to endure which implies conscious endurance of pain or distress.

You can see how pain is inevitable but much suffering is optional, or at least to be expected as a normal part of life.   Quit yelling: "Why me?  Why me?" so much.  It's you because it's everyone.  You're not getting picked on