Avoiding Pain..

Recently in Philosophy class, we have looked through many quotes from philosophers & thinkers. One quote i really like, that brought my attention was the following:

"Most people elect not to continue with their life journeys, but instead to stop short by some distance to avoid the pain of giving up parts of themselves. What they dont understand, however, is that giving up on the journey itself is the most painful human experience of all" -Stoicism

Basically, what it means is that some people say they have to end their pain in life by terminating it. It seems like a relief, yet it is more painful to end one's life than to deal with the rest of the problems. I personally believe this, and it supports my opinion on suicide. Some people may agree with this as well, probably due to religion beliefs. As a Catholic Christian, God tells his people that the road is not pretty. There are many obstacles in life that help people become stronger. We just need to resist to temptations and ask God to help us over come them.
There is also a very famous saying that says "What doesnt kill you, makes you stronger", and I believ its true. Sometimes we just focus on the pain we feel, and we dont look at the good things we learn from falling. Experiences make us stronger, whether they are good or bad. If we terminate our lives before we learn how to deal with them, we cant say it defeated us, because we were cowards and didnt fight against it.

Other people may think that by ending one's life to avoid pain is the best way to deal with it. People obviously dont like to suffer. Perhaps the notion of " What doesnt kill you, makes you stronger" has infinite pain, and after all the pain, its hard to see the light. In a world where technology has made life easier to people, its very hard for them to enjoy pain. In the colonial times, people had to suffer every day working hours farming, with no electricity, tedious house chores, and sometimes the lack of food. It was impossible to give up back then, because if they did, the children would suffer and it was a basis of survival. Now, children can have government care and services for diseased parents. No one likes to work as hard for survival like people before.

In my opinion, we take too many things for granted. we dont appreciate the help we get from many new technological machines. We just use them to make our lives easier, yet we need to take care of them, not just for luxury. Once in a while we should go back to our roots and remember the hard ways it took to survive. Probably no one wants to live like an indiginous person, but we should appreciate what we have, dont give up when times are hard. Sometimes, we give up too easily, and dont see the shortcuts that can lessen our pain. If we are optismist, and enjoy life to the fullest, we might as well not experience much pain.
=)