The sad part is that we have to wait for the biopsy results to know what treatments to use. And while she waits, she suffers. Yes, she takes pills to relieve the pain two or three times a day, but the pain is there and the suffering continues.
In the news yesterday, we learned that a house in New York caught fire. Only the mother and her 15 year old daughter were able to jump out of the window leaving behind seven young children, all victims of the fire. I can imagine the pain of the father who was not there when he heard the news.
Nowadays, with what is happening in the Middle East, we have to imagine those hundreds of thousands of refugees living in inhuman conditions and think of their suffering, having lost everything and finding themselves like this.
And what about the crusades?
How can the church justify its crimes in the face of the suffering that so many suffered? The Jews may well say that this suffering was caused to them by Christian domination.
Once again, man, as he is, causes suffering to another man.
Why do you ask?
It is in the nature of the human being. There are good and bad people among us. And we live with that, with a daily suffering that is part of our life.
But we are all victims.
I remember that in her very last column, published posthumously in Charlie Hebdo, Elsa wrote: "Human suffering derives from abuse. This abuse derives from belief, that is, from everything we have seen, from everything we have believed."
The word compassion comes from the Latin 'com passio ' with suffering. This means that we cannot see the pain of others with a cold heart. It also means that we pity the other person.
Death is nothing. Everyone will say that it is the end of suffering. That it is perhaps a happy moment rather than a disaster.
THE SUFFERING. (second part)
It's already been a while since I wrote: WHY SUFFERING.
Today, I will elaborate a little more on this subject living this pandemic that has been going on for two years and that reaches each of us. And it is sad to see our whole planet suffering.
Let's see the definition of this word which is far from being positive. Suffering is the fact of experiencing a painful or distressing sensation. We can suffer from the cold as well as from a separation. At this moment, one must endure, experience, support. One can suffer physically or morally.
Suffering is a big word and yet it is real. I wish I had not raised this subject because Nietzsche warned me that if I suffer, someone must be the cause. I don't have the strength to look around to find the person responsible.
However, in 'Thus Spoke Zarathustrà', the same Nietzsche enjoins us that
If you have a friend who suffers, be an asylum for his suffering.
In other words: the one to whom the suffering is distant must feel called to relieve the one of the others. Is the shared suffering less hard to bear?
I believe that there are many men whose hearts are powerfully moved by the mere appearance of suffering in a woman, that they will hasten to her aid.
Could it be that suffering is also something else? One only has to look at the film The Mississippi Mermaid, by François Truffaut (1969): when the two actors exchange words:
Jean-Paul Belmondo: "When I look at you, it is a pain."
Catherine Deneuve: "Yet yesterday you said it was a joy."
Jean-Paul Belmondo: "It is a joy and a suffering."
How do you explain that? I would have liked to ask the question to those involved.
And what about life, which sometimes seems to swing like a pendulum from suffering to boredom. And those two words are hardly pleasant. We suffer from not having what we want and once we get it, we don't want it anymore. This suffering did not last.
Is it the same for the desire to die. I am sure that all of us at some point have chosen to die rather than live in the moment. We need at all times those little joys that take us away from suffering. We must never have the desire to suffer.
However, if suffering is its own end, it is better not to suffer than to suffer. Is it necessary to suffer before enjoying the pleasures of life? Yes, once again the proof that pain precedes joy.
Whether it is physical or moral, suffering is a hell, meaningless and from which we cannot learn anything. Yes, life can be defined as the search for pleasure and this avoids any suffering. But what about the person who, faced with the alternative between unbearable suffering and death, chooses death? If for some people life appears to be a suffering, then it must be understood that there is a future full of inconveniences, useless efforts, repeated failures, miseries and troubles, it would not be surprising to prefer death.
Some say that pain is inevitable while suffering is optional. This reminds me of something a certain Arafat said to his people that as long as they are displaced, their suffering will eventually bring them liberation. In other words, it is better to give meaning to suffering than to face a choice. Between evil and worse, better evil.
One fact remains, suffering is unique to the person who suffers. And the one who fears that he or she will suffer, is already suffering from what he or she fears. I do not believe that suffering is a divine punishment. If someone is there to hurt us, it's up to us to choose who to be with. The fact remains that to ignore suffering is even worse than causing it. And I do not agree with those who say that from suffering emerge the strongest souls.
How can we reason our own suffering when it is stronger than us
when it paralyzes our sensitivity, when it makes us selfish, when it absorbs us entirely. And what about happiness in all this? I remember a saying that happiness is not allowed in this world as long as it is an insult to suffering.
The question that remains unanswered would be: Is suffering part of the lot of life when we know that the greatest suffering is to feel alone, unloved, abandoned by all? Should we believe that suffering will one day save humanity?
