August 6, 2013
No pain! No gain! This is what we often hear about the benefits of pain when we do exercise routines. However that phrase actually has a broader meaning than we often realize. From the early days of human existence emotional pain, suffering, and anguish were the positive force behind every achievement in our existence. We are not the only ones to experience pain and anguish of course. All animal species live through pain, suffering, and anguish. However humans are the only ones that can do something about it and turn them into a positive.
From the early days of our existence, those who wanted to move to other parts of the world had to go through treacherous journeys whether through sea or land to find opportunities in other parts of the world. However, those who attempted such journeys had to fight the emotional pain, the anguish and the suffering that came about, starvation, diseases and harsh weather conditions that caused the death of many that attempted such journeys. That alone sparked the interest of many into making traveling safer and more efficient. As result transportation has become extremely sophisticated and safer today.
Like with transportation, the need for improving the means of communication for early humans became more and more necessary as civilizations around the world became more sophisticated. The anguish and emotional pain experienced by the loss of lives that could have been saved, had there been better and faster ways to communicate, were key in motivating many to come up with communication systems that could save lives. Today surgeons from some parts of the world are capable of directing and supervising emergency surgeries in other parts of the world through video conferencing. Similarly, the rescue of those who have been injured in accidents in remote parts of the world can begin almost immediately due to our sophisticated means of communication. In many instances our sophisticated means of transportation and that of communication have joined forces to save people’s lives.
The pain and anguish caused by complex medical problems have also been key factors in many discoveries that were made possible when physicians and scientists around the world joined forces to solve such problems. As result, many diseases that caused suffering and anguish earlier in our existence can now be treated or prevented. In fact, just about all the discoveries and inventions that have taken place in this world came about our need to reduce emotional pain of some form.
One can only wonder how our transportation systems would have turned out today if no one had experienced any pain, anguish, or suffering, when their loved ones perished in treacherous journeys. Similarly, if humans had not been capable of experiencing pain, suffering, and anguish would have anyone cared to develop the sophisticated communication systems that we have today? Moreover, would have anyone cared to find a solution to complex medical problems if humans were not able to experience emotional pain, anguish and suffering? One could argue that in the pursuit of experiencing a better standard of living, humans would have done those things anyways. However, it is hard to picture anyone pursuing happier and easier times if we as humans lacked the ability to experience emotional pain, anguish, and suffering. It is hard to define happiness without alluding to such emotions. The truth is that if humans were not capable of experiencing any form of emotional pain, happiness would not exist.
What we need to realize is that every industrial and technological advance that we have today had its origins, directly or indirectly, in our ability to experience some form of emotional pain. As I seat today in my very comfortable chair to write this post, I can only wonder whether I would be seating in it today if, earlier in our existence, no one had experienced pain in their behinds after seating on boulders, logs, or stumps for long periods of time.
I also wonder how many people would have perished to date from the scorching summers and freezing winters if no one had experienced any suffering or anguish from harsh weather conditions.
We always treat pain, anguish, and suffering as something we wished we could eliminate from our lives. We seldom realize that if we didn’t experience those types of emotions our world would not be what it is today.