Problems and Pain

"...Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and our wisdom. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. When we desire to encourage the growth of the human spirit, we challenge and encourage the human capacity to solve problems that we learn."

"...Fearing the pain involved, almost all of us, to a greater or lesser degree, attempt to avoid problems. We procrastinate, hoping they will go away. We ignore them, forget them, pretend they do not exist. We even take drugs to assist us in ignoring them, so that by deadening ourselves to the pain we can forget problems that cause the pain. We attempt to skirt around problems rather than meet them head on. We attempt to get out of them rather than suffer through them."

"When we avoid the legitimate suffering that results from dealing with problems, we also avoid the growth that problems demand from us."

"Without healing, the human spirit begins to shrivel."

"Let us teach ourselves and our children the necessity for suffering and the value thereof, the need to face problems directly and experience the pain involved."

M. Scott Peck, "The Road Less Traveled."