January 12
Through hardship and privation I became what I am. Rightly borne, suffering is not the detour to freedom but the shortest path.
The Hundred Thousand Songs (freely rendered)
Listening mode
Through hardship and privation I became what I am. Rightly borne, suffering is not the detour to freedom but the shortest path.
When you tell how you got through a hard time, it often sounds coherent in hindsight. You name what you learned from it, and that is true, too. It only becomes strange when someone asks whether you would wish that same time on a person you're fond of.
Probably not. That doesn't contradict your story, but it shows its limit. What shaped you can't be passed on as a method. The hardship alone decided little. Much depended on who happened to be there, what you believed yourself capable of, and whether a day came in between when you could sleep. Others have been diminished by something similar, and it wasn't for lack of will.
What really makes suffering a shortcut is perhaps only that it closes off the ways of escape. For some incidental things there is simply no strength left. Whether that turns into freedom or mere narrowness shows only later, and it is not in your hands alone.
If the person you're fond of falls into a time like that, you will still set a plate in front of them first.
