The Virtues of Pain

It’s now more than a week since persistent back pain caused by an injury has forced me to consume pain medication which adds up to the daily dose f steroids I need in order to keep my general condition under control. These days were also more difficult following a number of disappointments I had in my life. Indeed, only now can I seem to have renewed hope in a better tomorrow. A tomorrow when I can return back to work and join my work mates once again.

Even if I wish to escape the pain, I must admit that, whatever we do,. certain type of pain is inevitable and may be even necessary.

Here I am not saying that I just accept the pain that's purely physical without making use of medication to relief the immediate pain. Indeed, one should make proper use of technological innovation to address the symptoms of pain. But, then again, we should accept the fact that not all pain is valueless and that pain itself can help us connect to others and to our basic humanity.

Such an approach to pain appears to be a contradiction to the pleasure seeking or hedonistic ideal that equates pain and suffering with evil while pleasure and physical comfort are the higher goods of our current age.


While it’s a natural response to reject pain, not all pain can be removed. I have experienced moments of pain where I even questioned if there was any point in going on. These moments often led me to consider even suicide. But these thoughts eventually would last for days or even months until I would realize that, instead of brooding on my bad fortune, I could learn from this experience. It’s not easy as it might appear when expressed in words and I don’t judge those who failed and and are no longer with us.

However, I can’t help worry about the implication of a hedonism that aims to reject pain because it often leads to the elimination of those people whose lives, due to their pain, are deemed unworthy of living as their lives are perceived as insignificant burdens and ‘lies not worth living’. A life such as my own. In addition, a pleasure seeking attitude to life may result in a decrease in palliative care treatment and lack of funding in pain management research. It would mean removing the person instead of alleviating the pain.

There were many things I reflected upon during these times of pain. Things that I had forgotten as I went about with life until I was forced to stop. I realized how, in spite of any disagreements, my family was there to support me.

I realized that my friends hadn’t abandoned me in this moment of need. I realiszed that if it wasn’t for the work of many others unknown to me, I would’t have anything to brink or eat, no electricity, no means of reaching out to the world. If it hadn’t been for those who encouraged me to ask the right questions, my life today would have been different. Finally, if it hadn’t been for doctors and scientists that have developed treatment and medication to deal with conditions like my own, I would not be here today.

In this sense, pain reminds us of our own vulnerability as human beings and awakens us to the fact that we need each other in life and that we are part of one single human family.

Why do we have to die?

If you consider the many ways we express who we are and the different rolls we take on during our lives, it's not difficult to appreciate that how we define ourselves is dependent on context, our background and mood at the time we engage with the world and our inner selves. In simple terms, we have a need to express ourselves in a variety of ways, such as through artistic creations, scientific endeavours or by religious or spiritual practice.

While we may have a preference for one area over another, the fact remains that our attempts to express who we are and thus define who we are stems from a need to defy death in our own way. Whether this entails leaving a masterpiece, make a new discovery or even have children, we want to be remembered and gain a kind of immortality . Ironically, even those wanting to end their life by committing suicide are trying to tell the world something that we aren't noticing or are so lost in our private worlds that we see only as far as our inner circle.

These are important questions, and require some thought and more investigation. And I feel that I've neglected this aspect of myself which also defines who I am. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to struggle for the rights of disabled people like myself. But, I'm at a stage of my life where I need to take a good look at my priorities in life and think more about whwant to achieve in life.

The experiences that impairment and the manner society has reacted to me (often disabling me) and all the adaptations I learned to make to address any limitation of the body, have influenced me for life. And even if many may assume my physical and sensory impairment were sources of great sadness and disappointment, my experience tells me a different story. Indeed, on the contrary, my apparent limitation has forced me to swallow my pride on many occasions. It also placed me in situations where I had to find alternative solutions to tasks that average people take for granted. More importantly, my differences have helped me refrain from judging others by their appearances because I knew how strangers have judged me.

But it's a trap when you think you can fight these forces by living a life that affirms your right to humanity. The risk is that by doing so, you become enslaved to a cage of your own making. In other words, you become stuck in a one dimensional reality. As a consequence, you avoid or neglect the other aspects of your life that you cherished since childhood. In my case, my longing for answers, my love for writing and my hunger for meaning. Ultimately, our quest for a degree of immortality and our thirst for purpose in life are our way of dealing with a Hunan concern.

Why do we have to die?