"Brave New World" is my absolute, 100 percent favorite novel. I was introduced to the novel at the young age of sixteen and it changed my life. "Brave New World" is about a dystopian world where emotion, relationships, and pain have all been removed. Babies are born in tubes and monogamy is forbidden. "Brave New World" changed the way that I saw our world because even though it was extreme, it taught me truths about the real world that I never realized before. Ever since I first read it, it has stuck with me and shaped my views of life, particularly on the importance of suffering.
In "Brave New World," there is a pill for everything and no one ever suffers. People in that society didn't want to feel. They didn't want to experience anything except pleasure, so they did away with all other emotions. It shocked me to realize that our society does the exact same thing. We hate suffering. If you can do something to stop it, you should. If you don't and you endure the suffering, you must be crazy. Why do you think that assisted suicide is such a big controversy? People think that if they are going to die anyway, they may as well not have to suffer through the pain of dying slowly. Despite this, in my short 19 years of life, I have learned that suffering is incredibly important.
I'm not trying to say that I think that healing is unimportant and I'm definitely not saying that people should seek out suffering or wallow in it, but they should not be afraid to feel it. Everyone will experience suffering on some level during their lifetime. Suffering is both big and small and it is unavoidable. Society tries to tell us to not let the pain in, to fix it, ignore it, and pretend that you aren't feeling it. However, that is wrong. It is wrong to tell a person who is suffering from depression to ignore the pain and pretend to be happy. It is wrong to tell a person who is suffering through cancer that their pain is for nothing and that they may as well die now. It is wrong because suffering is not pointless and it should not be ignored.
Blessed Mother Teresa, soon to be canonized as a saint, said, "Pain and suffering have come into your life, but remember that pain, sorrow, and suffering are but the kiss of Jesus, a sign the you have come so close to Him that He can kiss you." For the Christian person, suffering creates solidarity with Jesus and it creates an understanding of his sacrifice on the cross. However, even if you aren't a Christian or don't believe in God, suffering still isn't pointless. Suffering teaches you a new kind of joy that exists even when there is pain. Suffering teaches you that there is pain in the world and, whether you see it or ignore it, people in the world suffer. They have no other option. For the cancer patient, suffering may draw them closer to Christ, but it may also be an avenue to experience a new and deeper type of love for others and from others. I watched a mentor die from cancer and I have never seen someone else who was so loved in the midst of it and who loved so much in spite of the daily pain.
Suffering is important because only through experiencing suffering do you experience true joy. Suffering and joy are somehow profoundly mixed and bound up together. However, you wouldn't know that unless you let yourself suffer. Suffering means that you are human and maybe that's a little scary. Suffering means that you aren't invincible and that you will die one day. However, suffering also shows that you are strong, loved, and can know joy. It seems crazy and counter-cultural, but maybe that is why we need to avoid becoming "Brave New World." So, the next time that suffering comes your way, don't pop a pill or fake it. Let suffering show you the joy that can be found within it.
