Avoid suffering if you can, right?
This makes perfect sense to everyone.
Suffering is not good, for its own sake. But maybe the good in suffering, is what we learn from it.
And I think there is often much to learn.
We know that there are lots of good lessons that can be drawn because even when we have the opportunity to avoid suffering in our fictional worlds, we still conjure up obstacles to overcome.
I mean, think about it. Without suffering, can you have bravery? Or justice?
And don’t forget what Victor Frankl when he said that if you attach meaning to suffering, it turns it into sacrifice.
Avoid suffering, but make peace about it.
If this intersection of religion and philosophy intrigues you, go read Why Suffering (Amazon).
But if suffering is good, ought it not to be pursued rather than avoided? I answer that suffering is not good in itself. What is good in any painful experience is, for the sufferer, his submission to the will of God, and, for the spectators, the compassion aroused and the acts of mercy to which it leads.
-C.S. Lewis, The Problem Of Pain (Amazon)