Job, God, and Suffering

You might argue that in most films there's some degree of suffering- after all, it's not a good story unless the main character bounces back from somewhere. But there's suffering, and then there's suffering- losing your significant other to a bad break-up versus losing your child to cancer. It's a wide spectrum and there might be a lot to be said for that- is human existence merely suffering with brief moments of bliss? Most 'layperson' films slide anxiously over the idea of the reality of human suffering, although again, most have elements of it. Characters and societies suffer, but they end up absolved from suffering.

I could wax philosophical for ages on this.

I think there are a lot of films that present suffering and dealing with suffering in one or two or five similar ways (ending in neat little conclusions in which everybody's happy), which is ridiculous because there are 7 billion ways to deal with suffering. Nobody suffers the same, and nobody deals with suffering the same. Sure, you might try to categorize. The five stages of grief. Anger management counseling. Therapy. Drugs. Alcohol. Self-isolation. Madness. Born again Christians.

What I'm trying to spit out here is that the experience of human suffering is difficult to tackle. It's hard to get a grip on because it's like trying to rip out your own heart to examine how it goes. Part of most people's knowledge about suffering is based on faith (more on that in a second) and part on experience. People who go through some immense pit holes and survive the journey to the other side can impart, somewhat, what real suffering means for those who have it easier. And the lightly burdened people can step back and feel blessed, because they are the same, and have not been re-shaped by despair.

We asked, "Why do good people suffer?". I branch out in two directions. I'm a realist- probably there is no reason other than suffering "just is". It's random chance, it happens, move on from it. But I'm also an English major- personally I think, "Well, it makes your story pretty interesting, doesn't it?". Don't know if there's a God Up There, reading our stories individually. For me there doesn't have to be a why, because face it, you're not going get that answer in fine print. There's suffering- there's also happiness. Why is the sky blue? Why aren't tangerines purple? One of the Great Unanswerables. It just is.