Wisdom from Suffering
Amber Lyles
Humanities HNS
Period 9th
18 September 2011
Wisdom From Suffering
“Suffering is the price of being alive.”; “make use of suffering.” These straight forward quotes sourced from the thoughts of Judy Collins and Henri-Frederic Amiel are produced from different origins but compatible. Collins’s is stemmed from the idea that suffering cannot be avoided and Amiel’s is from his philosophy of the art of living. Most people try to deny and avoid the path of suffering. Yet, they often fail to realize that no matter how many detours they take around suffering, the construction of it is still going to be there. Might even relocate closer to them where they are forced to really deal with it. In Sophocles play Oedipus Rex, Oedipus, the king of Thebes suffering comes from personal and criminal revelations. Somewhat similar but not nearly as extreme is and/or was the origin of my suffering. Good thing is that, people gain wisdom from suffering through growth and acceptance.
Being king is hard, title alone comes with high prestige and expectations. Oedipus was put on a pedestal by the citizens of Thebes like he was their God. That was their biggest mistake. So when the land of Thebes is plagued by disease and death, Oedipus pleas that “I know that you are deathly sick; and yet, sick as you are, not one is sick as I. Each of you suffers in himself alone his anguish, not another’s; but my spirit groans for the city, for myself, for you.” Oedipus not only wants the city to know that he suffers with them but that he suffers substantially because his suffering not only includes himself. Now not saying that what was said wasn’t sincere, just the fact that he knew of how they saw him put pressure on him to over exaggerate a little to make a point that he cared. His greatest suffering came through the process of finding out who killed King Laius; a king before him, whose death was believe to have brought the plague. During that process Oedipus was told by
Humanities HNS
Period 9th
18 September 2011
Wisdom From Suffering
“Suffering is the price of being alive.”; “make use of suffering.” These straight forward quotes sourced from the thoughts of Judy Collins and Henri-Frederic Amiel are produced from different origins but compatible. Collins’s is stemmed from the idea that suffering cannot be avoided and Amiel’s is from his philosophy of the art of living. Most people try to deny and avoid the path of suffering. Yet, they often fail to realize that no matter how many detours they take around suffering, the construction of it is still going to be there. Might even relocate closer to them where they are forced to really deal with it. In Sophocles play Oedipus Rex, Oedipus, the king of Thebes suffering comes from personal and criminal revelations. Somewhat similar but not nearly as extreme is and/or was the origin of my suffering. Good thing is that, people gain wisdom from suffering through growth and acceptance.
Being king is hard, title alone comes with high prestige and expectations. Oedipus was put on a pedestal by the citizens of Thebes like he was their God. That was their biggest mistake. So when the land of Thebes is plagued by disease and death, Oedipus pleas that “I know that you are deathly sick; and yet, sick as you are, not one is sick as I. Each of you suffers in himself alone his anguish, not another’s; but my spirit groans for the city, for myself, for you.” Oedipus not only wants the city to know that he suffers with them but that he suffers substantially because his suffering not only includes himself. Now not saying that what was said wasn’t sincere, just the fact that he knew of how they saw him put pressure on him to over exaggerate a little to make a point that he cared. His greatest suffering came through the process of finding out who killed King Laius; a king before him, whose death was believe to have brought the plague. During that process Oedipus was told by