Article 1 - "A FEATHER IN THE BALANCE" June 2007 edition of First Church of The Streets

    Nobody wants to suffer pain. At least, no one but a masochist. The idea of pain being an asset is something that seems to generally be assigned to cute maxims like "no pain, no gain". In the end, however, pain and suffering are things to be avoided unless some specific goal is shining in the distance waiting to be attained. To feel pain just to feel it, at least in much of Western culture, seems like pure silliness and nonsense. Think positive, fake it till you make it, put on a happy face: these are the remedies suggested when one is in a quagmire of pain that doesn't seem to have a beginning or and end. And if all else fails, there's always a trusty antidepressant to be had.

    Waiting through suffering or misery doesn't make a lot of sense in a can-do, take action culture. Especially in a society such as the United States, which espouses the ethos that one can rise from the ashes and become the greatest phoenix rising, the idea of just sitting pain and suffering out seems like a wasteful way to spend one's energy and time, when so many other things like making money and creating new enterprises could have been had. One who suffers day in and day out becomes a symbol of a drag on resources. These resources can be momentary, such as one who can't seem to get off of public assistance, or emotionally, such as the friend who has to hear the incessant woes of one who always seems to be in crisis. Get off your butt, seems to be the first reaction. Do something!

    That "do something" mentality may be all well and good some of the time, but to suggest that "getting of your butt and doing something" is always the solution may not be the best way to look at life as a whole, and in all circumstances. The Preacher discusses the way of wisdom in Ecclesiastes 8:6 by assigning a place and time for all things, including the most dire pain: "For every matter there is a time and a judgment, though the misery of man increases greatly". In this matter, the Preacher is referring to one who is subject to a monarch, and how one must use discretion in approaching a subject that one disagrees with. Contrary to the idea that one must immediately rise to the challenge and attack it, the Preacher suggests that even in the most dire of circumstances, one must step back and assess if the time is right for challenging misery, whether it is coming from within or without. He seems to suggest that just because pain exists does not mean that everyone should immediately take out their erasers and blot it out. Rather, one should remember there is a time for all things and take this into consideration when deciding what to do with the suffering that engulfs or is present around him.

    Of course, this always can turn into an excuse to do nothing. To many in the West, to see suffering as pure karma as many do in the East seems to simply be evasive. And in some cases, it may very well be. But to just attack pain and suffering by plunging ahead may not be any better, and its own way may be just as evasive. Instead of taking the time to understand what is going on, the attack mode just lauds itself for going ahead and getting something done and considers itself its own reward. An example would be overmedicating people who have behavioral or mental disorders such as ADD or depression. Instead of going to the root of why a person exhibits hyperactive or depressive characteristics, automatically medicating a person shows that something is being done about the problem at hand immediately. The problem with this approach is that it treats the symptoms and not the causes, and because the problem has supposedly been arrested, the urgency to find the larger cause of the epidemic is lessened. And more dangerously, a person could have been completely misdiagnosed, rendering even the immediate result as null and void.

    Waiting through suffering means trying to find long term solutions to problems and difficulties. This used to be inconvenient in an instant soup motorized twentieth century, but now seems ridiculous in an instant- messaging technological twenty-first century. Though the Internet has forged international connections, it has also opened up avenues whereby things are more interconnected, making the butterfly effect even more relevant. One person's suffering in the United States or Canada can be sent over the airwaves to India or China. The unrest of the Sudan or Colombia can be broadcast immediately to Sweden and South Korea. The urgency of all this information can make it seem that action needs to be taken now, right now.

    But the very thing that makes things seem more urgent is the very thing that urges caution. Namely, that one's choices in foreign policy, trade, communication or media may upset the balance of everything else. And in the personal realm, where within each individual there is a universe, this delicate balance also prevails. Listening to one's soul in all things, seeing all things as part of a web where one lives, marks the beginning of discretion that leads to constructive action. This is the lesson that can be taken with the patience that comes through waiting through suffering. Do something, but let wisdom prevail. This is the only way of preventing misery from compounding upon itself, whether it be in the World Bank, or one's personal frontier. This delicate balance is like a feather that pushes the scale too far one way; one must always be aware of how one choice can upset a lifetime's work of dreams.