On Suffering
The world feels so heavy right now. People, families, nations. Sickness, death, evil that reaches beyond all restraint. Each of them adding weight as the world bows under the heaviness of its collective suffering. Why, oh why, oh why do we suffer? Oh, how this age-old question haunts us. I doubt most of the time whether I am honestly "qualified" enough to ask it myself. I often debate with myself whether my garden-variety suffering is really suffering, with my series of mostly good days, happy moments, kid smiles to assuage the tantrums, and just an overall privileged, stable life. My heart often can't take the weight of the world and all its negativity and sorrows in contrast with my own rosy life. But if I'm honest with myself, I'm facing my own little battle. And it's one that gives me a slightly better glimpse of the bigger battles being waged all around me. This summer has been, in a word, tiring. It's taken its physical and menta