Thursday, October 22, 2009

On suffering

"To draw an analogy: a man's suffering is similar to the behavior of a gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the 'size' of human suffering is absolutely relative.

It also follows that a very trifling thing can cause the greatest of joys."

Viktor E. Frankl
in Man's Search For Meaning


Sometimes I think people (usually me) shouldn't whine about their problems so much because someone always has it so much worse. But last night Carter decided it was perfectly acceptable to wake me up every hour and a half.

Do people have it worse? Yes they do.
Would I choose this problem over about 17 billion other problems I could think of? Uh huh.
Am I still suffering? Yup.

And yet...when I look at this face?






4 comments:

Alysha said...

he is so handsome! Jen I want to talk with you, I miss you! I dont have that 808 number any more and you changed your number so we need to get the new ones. Love ya

mikensi said...

He has gorgeous eyes! What a handsome little man! I know how you feel! Sort of.. Jae was up every 2 hours last night.. I thought he was sleeping through the nights! :(

Lisa Johnson said...

Look how big he has gotten already! What a handsome boy! And you are super cute too! I feel for your suffering. I don't like being woken up at all, let alone every thirty minutes!

Cierra said...

awww he is way too cute to get mad at for lack of sleep. but i sure hope he starts sleeping better for your sake!