#on suffering

[terrorignitis]

So I keep it, to myself— and it hurts.

Sylvia Plath

[girlfictions]

Ada Limón, from Calling Things What They Are (The Hurting Kind)

[metamorphesque]

The Ambiguity of Suffering, E. M. Cioran (translated by Ilinca Zarifopol-Johnston)

[1-jar-of-stars]

““You. Ba. Bas. Bast. Ba.” He died, staring viciously at them as they passed by.” -The Long Walk, Richard Bachman

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night, Dylan Thomas // The Long Walk, dir. Francis Lawrence

divas i fear im not exactly sure how i feel about this one but. we move ‼️

[griefasagarden]

leila chatti, awrah, deluge

ID: “What else... but divive, the way / ill stems from evil’s root, / patient from suffering, blessing and blood on the same dark vine.” End ID

[winged-thinged]

I can't believe this needs to be said, but—suffering isn't good for you! It's stupid to rely on suffering to purify you, to build empathy, or to reach enlightenment.

In my experience, suffering mostly makes people myopic and self-interested. And this is, in a way, by design—the human body is built to slam on the brakes and put everything else on pause when you're in pain, to clamour for help until that pain is dealt with. It's your self-preservation instinct at work. It's good. But there's a reason drowning people tend to pull those around them down with them, panicky and thrashing. There's a reason you're supposed to only reach for them if you've had training, or if your feet are already planted on solid ground.

The people who appear to suffer gracefully, to learn something from the experience, to build empathy, to come out the other side stronger—mostly can do so because they already have a decent support system in place, and because they're already the kind of person who goes looking for opportunities to grow and heal and learn from others, who does that work themself. And so they would probably have built that wisdom another way. The pain isn't the active ingredient.

[cerslaylanniserve]

suffering and religion

(references coming soon)