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Suffering Isn’t the Opposite of Joy, It’s Another Path to It
People seem to think suffering is all bad but it’s not. A little bit of suffering will bring you where comfort alone cannot.
I’ve hatched a crazy plan. It’s still in its infancy and reserve the right to change my mind but here it is: I’m leaving my comfortable life, selling everything I own to travel the world and suffer.
More specifically, I want to visit people who do things that look like suffering to everyone else but, to them, it seems not only reasonable but blissful. To ask them why they do it. To do it myself. And to share what I learn with you.
I want to find out for myself why people allow themselves to be bitten by Bullet Ants and smoke toad venom. I want to know why people crawl on their hands and knees to a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Why they dance to celebrate death in Oaxaca. Why they run 155 miles through the scorching heat of the Atacama Desert. Why people survive off the grid, alone, in bear, wolf, and mountain lion country. Why they sweat, why they freeze, why they self-flagellate and fast.
I want to answer these questions: Why do completely sane people choose to suffer when they don’t have to? What happens when they do? What can we learn from them?
