The pain that cannot be avoided

Then lift your head, take a deep breath and ask the right questions and the answers will flow. And then, the pain will turn to pleasure...

- What does a cosmopolitan do isolated on this bench? Are you sinking into your melancholy?

- Ah, teacher! How to avoid a pain that is always present in our life?

- Is that the question you should be asking, John?

- What else could I say? There is no way to find pleasure in the midst of pain. In fact, I'm on a path with no answers.

- Perhaps, avoiding it may be the least sensible path.

- But to deal with this pain I need to have self-control and this has been increasingly difficult for me.

- Can this self-control relieve us of the pain of not having what we want? – asked the professor.

Both silent.

- Look into my eyes, John. Not everything will be in his control. Not even his wishes.

- Yeah... It seems like I'm already realizing that. Answer me, professor: What does Philosophy say about this?

- She doesn't say anything. It only leads us to doubt before we build our convictions. It gives us clarity of facts.

- Continues...

- Philosophy helps us deal with pain, physical pain, the pain of an illness, but also the pain of not having the life we want to live. I fear that Philosophy does not want to comfort us in the face of pain.

- What do you mean?

- Don't beat yourself up for not seeing things happen your way. Detach yourself from these moral rules that only bring guilt. Let go of those obsolete concepts that are powerless in the face of the force of feelings. Allow yourself to be frustrated. Realize the pain, John, because you won't always achieve happiness. Then lift your head, take a deep breath and ask the right questions and the answers will flow. And then, pain will become pleasure.

* Closed dialogue.

Anderson Cruz.

Writer, therapist and graduate student in philosophy.