Can Suffering be Beautiful?

The German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that one must have chaos inside to give birth to a dancing star. One might interpret this as Nietzsche saying that suffering is necessary for creating something beautiful. The notion that suffering is life is also something that we are told is a central tenant of Buddhism. Schubert suffered from mental cyclothymia (a milder form of bi-polar disorder) but wrote music like Ave Maria, Rachmaninoff went through a spell of serious depression before emerging to write his 2^nd piano concerto in C, and Mozart, famously, was writing a requiem (song for the dead) when he realised that he was dying, also. He is said to note that (pun unintentional, but brilliant) he was now writing his own requiem. In literature the examples are also innumerable, one of my favourites being von Hardenberg, who after mourning the loss of his betrothed, trying to contact her via the occult, emerged as the poet Novalis who write a beautiful book (Henry von Ofterdingen) about living one’s life trying to make dreams come true.

However, if we say that in order to create beautiful things, one must first suffer is absurd for if this was true, the world would be filled with people making beautiful things. One must also be aware of the relative nature of suffering. Einstein, for example, (another unintentional but brilliant pun) said that he relished solitude for that is where he was happiest. The same is true of the likes of Tesla, Newton et al. One’s suffering is subjective to the self and so the solitude that for many would be unbearable gave rise to Kafka’s letters to Milena, some of the most beautiful love letters ever written. Beethoven’s Asperger’s and IBS enabled him to write his 9^th Symphony, yet what is different about him and his suffering, and the suffering of those who do not create beauty- be in works of art or kindness?

The notion that Buddhism is all about suffering is a misconception. The notion that one suffers, and accepts that life is to suffer is not Buddhism, it is nihilism. Buddhism teaches that one suffers, but if one can enter into the suffering to find the root cause then one can relive the suffering. Whilst many would say, the Stoic philosophers in particular, accept the suffering, Buddhism teaches us to move past the suffering through self-exploration. Buddhism is in many ways psychology. And here we reach the crux of the matter. What do those named above have in common? They were strong enough to accept their suffering, but to also try to move past it. It seems possible to say without fear of contradiction that whilst experiencing his depression that Rachmaninov did not find it beautiful, but having the strength to move past it, to emerge from it a changed man, a deeper, more profound, more empathetic man. Rachmaninoff could re-enter his darkness and light a candle.

Whilst one may indeed need to have chaos inside to give birth to something beautiful, in life, it is true, it is not what happens to us but who we are which determines who we will be.

‘till next time     

STRIKE!

Workers of the world, unite!

Having spent the last few years living in the 1950s, with President Trump, the UK, desperate to show how progressive it is, has moved into the 1980s. After years of shooting itself in both feet with anti-tank missiles, the UK finds itself kinda screwed.

After years of having his worst instincts not checked, the Russian President Vald, (he lets me call him Vald, because we’re both cool), decided to invade Ukraine. This led to the West doing what it does best- looking sternly at a child misbehaving with their back to them, leading to an energy crisis. That the energy crisis existed before the Russian invasion is irrelevant. Indeed, seeing the profit margins of the oil companies, one might think that they are actually prophets who saw this crisis coming and worked out how to exploit it, before it happened! Anyway, reasonably grounded conspiracies aside, the UK finds itself in a place where families are turning down food bank donations because they can’t afford to heat their food. This is real. This is serious. So, of course, it is exploited.

The average wage for a worker on the trains in the UK is £45,000, almost double the wage of a new teacher or a new nurse (both of which are desperately needed due to mass global shortages). The rails are owned by the tax payer, and private companies run the trains. If you think about it, when you buy a train ticket, you are paying twice- once for the rails and once for train. If you walk on the rails, it’s a £1000 fine, if you buy a ricket there’s no guarantee that you will have a seat, or even a train to stand on.

After years of abusing their customers, the train companies are jacking up their prices and going on strike. That it is the poorest members of society that mostly use the trains to commute is irrelevant. That it is school children going to school is neither here nor there. That the train owners and union leaders don’t use the trains as they find them unreliable is beside the point. That the union leaders voted for Brexit as they didn’t want anyone to impose their will upon them and that one has just resigned over an investigation into inappropriate sexual behaviour in the work place is not about elephants and so is irrelevant. Train strikes advertised for a month were called off late Friday night, accompanied with a press release saying that due to the late notice, there will still be no trains Saturday-Monday as there are no staff to work them. The thing is a PR disaster- the unions are essentially saying- we called off the strikes, aren’t we good? However, due to our rubbish staff, and the fact you have had to make new plans, we cannot offer the service, but it’s not our fault!

Unions have a good place in society. Many great changes have come about due to union action. However, as long as the leaders of the unions are Nazis, narcissistic thin-skinned egotists, all that will happen is that the people who are not affected by their actions will support them in speech but not in actions, whilst those who are affected may not speak up but will take action and soon the problems caused by trains will be a memory as people find solutions to their transport woes and the trains join their union leaders in being obsolete.

‘till next time