Avoidance of Pain

Clyde Reid writes in his book Celebrate the Temporary:

“One of the most common obstacles to celebrating life fully is our avoidance of pain. We do everything to escape pain. Our culture reinforces our avoidance of pain by assuring us that we can live a painless life. Advertisements constantly encourage us to believe that life can be pain free. (But) to live without pain is a myth…. To live without pain….. is to live half a life. This is an unmistakable, clear, unalterable fact…. Many of us do not realise that pain and joy run together. When we cut ourselves off from pain, we have unwittingly cut ourselves off from joy as well.”