What Does Suffering Do for You?

The author of a novel says the book is his life, but suffering takes that away. If your meaning in life is rooted in something outside this world will you actually be equipped for life inside this world? A cultural anthropologist says modern Western culture does less for its members when it comes to helping them handle suffering than any other culture in history. The reigning metaphor of contemporary secular culture is that suffering is from impersonal forces devoid of intentionality.