This has always happened to me. In the worst moments of my life, when I've felt most alone, most misunderstood, I write better. And the opposite is equally true: when things are going well, when I'm busy and active, the writing gets worse and the ideas dry up.
To be a writer you have to suffer, and use writing as a form of healing. The same could be said of music, or art in general. I've been listening to Linkin Park again lately, and watching how Chester sang each song, you could feel the terrible suffering inside him, the kind that eventually led him to take his own life because he couldn't overcome it.
Negative feelings are purer, more visceral, and far more enduring. They demand a response. Happiness is the opposite. When you're at peace with life, comfortable, there's no urgency to act. You just want to stay there. And that's exactly why it's harder to create from contentment than from pain.
I agree. Two quotes that come to mind after your comment. One by Borges, which I think gives us a wonderful perspective to keep in mind during hardships. It helped me a lot during bad times:
A writer - and, I believe, generally all persons - must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.
Another by Plato:
Suffering is the price of wisdom.
I think it’s useful to think that every time we suffer there’s a bigger picture behind it. There’s some purpose to it. That makes it bearable.
I often find my mind returning again and again to a line that (I think) is from Jung —
“You find what you need where you least want to look.” — That line certainly applies to suffering. But as you have framed it, which I like, imagine the magic of looking willingly. Of choosing to suffer in the knowing that it will help you grow. That’s something.
Thanks Hrvoje. I’m always glad to read your work :)
Thank you for reading Michael. Yes, I think just accepting suffering as an inevitable fact of life and not losing a glimmer of hope even in the deepest pits is a monumental task. To actively seek it is an even harder task, a sign of true fearlessness.
"Becoming a parent is nothing other than rejecting comfort for the sake of suffering with the hope that this suffering is going to come with meaning. That meaning is simply absent from a life of endless comfort. And it does come with meaning. You find out that the meaning of this suffering is to love, to suffer for another is to give love, which is more blessed than to receive it. It grows the soul."
Loved this 🙏
Also, I think the saint you mentioned might be Brother Lawrence. That sounds like something he would say.
Thank you for reading, Jeremy. Still can’t find the exact quote, but this one by him, is close: “I did not pray for any relief, but I prayed for strength to suffer with courage, humility and love."
This has always happened to me. In the worst moments of my life, when I've felt most alone, most misunderstood, I write better. And the opposite is equally true: when things are going well, when I'm busy and active, the writing gets worse and the ideas dry up.
To be a writer you have to suffer, and use writing as a form of healing. The same could be said of music, or art in general. I've been listening to Linkin Park again lately, and watching how Chester sang each song, you could feel the terrible suffering inside him, the kind that eventually led him to take his own life because he couldn't overcome it.
Negative feelings are purer, more visceral, and far more enduring. They demand a response. Happiness is the opposite. When you're at peace with life, comfortable, there's no urgency to act. You just want to stay there. And that's exactly why it's harder to create from contentment than from pain.
I agree. Two quotes that come to mind after your comment. One by Borges, which I think gives us a wonderful perspective to keep in mind during hardships. It helped me a lot during bad times:
A writer - and, I believe, generally all persons - must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.
Another by Plato:
Suffering is the price of wisdom.
I think it’s useful to think that every time we suffer there’s a bigger picture behind it. There’s some purpose to it. That makes it bearable.
I often find my mind returning again and again to a line that (I think) is from Jung —
“You find what you need where you least want to look.” — That line certainly applies to suffering. But as you have framed it, which I like, imagine the magic of looking willingly. Of choosing to suffer in the knowing that it will help you grow. That’s something.
Thanks Hrvoje. I’m always glad to read your work :)
Thank you for reading Michael. Yes, I think just accepting suffering as an inevitable fact of life and not losing a glimmer of hope even in the deepest pits is a monumental task. To actively seek it is an even harder task, a sign of true fearlessness.
Agreed. Here’s to trying to take on that task. :)
Sublime, as always.
"Becoming a parent is nothing other than rejecting comfort for the sake of suffering with the hope that this suffering is going to come with meaning. That meaning is simply absent from a life of endless comfort. And it does come with meaning. You find out that the meaning of this suffering is to love, to suffer for another is to give love, which is more blessed than to receive it. It grows the soul."
Loved this 🙏
Also, I think the saint you mentioned might be Brother Lawrence. That sounds like something he would say.
Thank you for reading, Jeremy. Still can’t find the exact quote, but this one by him, is close: “I did not pray for any relief, but I prayed for strength to suffer with courage, humility and love."