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“A man gets used to pain, he thinks. He learns it. It gets familiar to him, a part of what his life is and feels like. And what good does it do him? It teaches him to make light of the pains that are less, and to respect those that are greater. It teaches him what he can stand. And what good does that do him? He needs to know what he can stand because the chances are he will have to stand as much as he is able. That is what is ahead of him, to suffer and to stand it. And so is there virtue in standing it? Maybe. Surely. But there are limits too, and suffering kills...And that - what it takes to kill a man, what his limit is - is his mystery. The mystery of his death becomes the mystery of his life.” — Wendell Berry
A man gets used to pain, he thinks. He learns it. It gets familiar to him, a part of what his life is and feels like. And what good does it do him? It teaches him to make light of the pains that are less, and to respect those that are greater. It teaches him what he can stand. And what good does that do him? He needs to know what he can stand because the chances are he will have to stand as much as he is able. That is what is ahead of him, to suffer and to stand it. And so is there virtue in standing it? Maybe. Surely. But there are limits too, and suffering kills...And that - what it takes to kill a man, what his limit is - is his mystery. The mystery of his death becomes the mystery of his life.