We who survive anything will always hurt
For the topic “Pain from Significant Loss,” Gabay Inspirational Forum on Pain, 30 October 2015, Ateneo de Manila University A couple of months ago, a friend of mine asked why people are fundamentally riddled with contradiction, especially in wanting things. “Why is it that we want the things that will hurt us the most?” she asked. For instance, she greatly wanted to have someone to love, specifically a child of her own, but having one ultimately entails having one to love and having that beloved child grow up only to be separated from her when fully mature. Raising a child, after all, is raising him or her to be independent, meaning that you are raising a person to become his or her own person in time. She presented another example: another friend of ours wanted a stable job which coincides with his passion in life, but having one would ultimately entail him to work his butt off, to completely excel in some projects, to completely fail in some, and maybe to lose his job if he