I think we can all agree that the cliche, “no pain, no gain,” is a proverbial truth. When we experience physical pain in the gym, we gain muscles &strength. When we endure hardship &sacrifice in order to succeed, we gain a feeling of achievement &satisfaction , not to mention financial rewards. When we truly embrace emotional pain, we gain compassion for the suffering of others, an appreciation for the fleeting nature of things, as well as wisdom &spiritual humility. Every act of birth is an act of pain. Our very lives are sustained by the suffering &death of plants &animals, who in turn are sustained by other organisms having a very bad day. That being said, i think we can also agree that this system sucks &needs to be seriously re-hitched. Now im not saying i have a better approach than this pain/gain thing thats been happening for millions of years — but that doesnt mean we couldnt start tossing around some ideas. For instance, why couldnt a substratum for life be developed around the theme, “no dream, no gain?” Sounds like heaven, right? Or is dreaming too easy? Would life quickly become complacent &cease to gain? But then, is gain really that critical? is gain the whole point? Is the fact that life exists at all proof that God or the universe hates complacency? It certainly explains why the primordial people are constantly being murdered for the sake of “progress.” It even explains why our senate went down the toilet.