On the radio today, one of the topics was trauma/suffering and how in America it is reenforced by iconic superhero’s and spoken by religious figures (as far back as the 1950’s) this verbiage of “what doesn’t kill ya makes you stronger” has become a standardized social norm. A kind of acceptance that living with suffering and the effects of trauma is normalized. To popularized this theme is foolish in my opinion because while experiences happen in our life’s and how we individually and collectively chosen to handle them is evolving (thankfully) we can not move forward if we simply do not address the causes of the trauma or suffering and to CHANGE those causes.
If we just accept trauma and suffering as something beyond our personal or social responsibilities then we will get more and more of trauma and suffering. Just like we are experiencing now. Let’s face it the average person is not Superman who is befallen by chemical alternations comes to earth and in this new place is now super human. While it makes for great entertainment in reality we experience as individuals no such mind melding and Earth shattering transformations due to trauma or suffering. Nor should we. Instead we need a more holistic approach to the human experience and to our mindfulness of ourselves and our environment both socially and physically. There is no easy solution to fixing why we have so much trauma and suffering now in the world but we the people of this beautiful Earth need to acknowledge that if you can put a person on the moon with our technology then we can certainly severely eliminate and help alleviate most of the trauma and suffering in this world.
I do not believe that we are here to accept suffering and trauma as the forefront of building character unless one wants to be co dependent on all the systems that messed it up in the first place. To me it would be living a lie to believe that suffering and trauma are the only things that make one learn or grow stronger because these are things that happen to us but are not us! If you know this then you are more likely to use your own abilities to decrease the intensity of any experience of the pain and suffering. And should one experience trauma and/or suffering then our society would be capable of sustainably dealing with it. Humans are here to experience and the playground is of our own making. SO…….. Think about it – How do you desire to grow and learn as a human being? My guess is trauma and suffering were not in your options!
Just my thoughts: RA