Posted by alii on May 22, 2002, at 16:00:57
The Dispossessed----Ursula Le Guin
"Suffering is the condition on which we live. And when it comes, you know it. You know it as the truth. Of course it’s right to cure diseases, to prevent hunger and injustice, as the social organism does. But no society can change the nature of existence. We can’t prevent suffering. This pain and that pain, yes, but not Pain. A society can only relieve social suffering, unnecessary suffering. The rest remains. The root, the reality. All of us here are going to know grief; if we live fifty years, we’ll have known pain for fifty years. And in the end we’ll die. That’s the condition we’re born on. I’m afraid of life! There are time I-I am very frightened. Any happiness seems trivial. And yet, I wonder if it isn’t all a misunderstanding - this grasping after happiness, this fear of pain. . . . If instead of fearing it and running from it, one could . . . get through it, go beyond it. There is something beyond it. It’s the self that suffers, and there’s a place where the self - ceases. I don’t know how to say it. But I believe that the reality-the truth that I recognize in suffering as I don’t in comfort and happiness-that the reality of pain is not pain. If you can get through it. If you can endure it all the way.
‘The reality of our life is in love, in solidarity,’ said a tall, soft eyed girl. ‘Love is the true condition of human life.’
Bedap shook his head. ‘No. Shev’s right," he said. ‘Love’s just one of the ways through, and it can go wrong, and miss. Pain never misses. But therefore we don’t have much choice about enduring it! We will, whether we want to or not.’
The girl with short hair shook her head vehemently. "But we won’t! One in a hundred, one in a thousand, goes all the way, all the way through. The rest of us keep pretending we’re happy, or else just go numb. We suffer, but not enough. And so we suffer for nothing.’"
poster:alii
thread:24333
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020517/msgs/24333.html