Embracing adversity

The Paris Review did an interview with author Marilynne Robinson. The excerpt below really struck a chord with me, capturing the concept that we can embrace adversity, instead of shrinking from it, as something that is an integral part of the human experience. And by doing so, also hold onto the knowledge that we are never alone in our experience, even in our darkest days.

"People are frightened of themselves. It’s like Freud saying that the best thing is to have no sensation at all, as if we’re supposed to live painlessly and unconsciously in the world. I have a much different view. The ancients are right: the dear old human experience is a singular, difficult, shadowed, brilliant experience that does not resolve into being comfortable in the world. The valley of the shadow is part of that, and you are depriving yourself if you do not experience what humankind has experienced, including doubt and sorrow. We experience pain and difficulty as failure instead of saying, I will pass through this, everyone I have ever admired has passed through this, music has come out of this, literature has come out of it. We should think of our humanity as a privilege."