Should we strive to suffer?
People who have experienced severe misfortune in their lives are often looked highly upon. Those who have suffered near-fatal illnesses, who have been drug addicts or homeless, people who have been driven so far into depression that they attempted suicide, those who have been financially poor and have had difficulty even affording basic food, people whose dads beat them when they were children, rape victims.
It seems these people are revered by the public, and it is easy to see why. They have experienced degrees of suffering which most have not. They have learned from their experiences and might have matured faster than they would have otherwise. They are, it seems, viewed as better people in general for having suffered. My first question is, are we justified in viewing people who have suffered greatly in the past as superior in some way to the general public?
My second question is addressed to anyone who would answer yes to the first. If it is true that those who suffer become better people, should we all strive to suffer? Throughout my life I've believed, on a semi-subconscious level, that I should. It might sound ridiculous, but I've found myself wishing that I could experience homelessness, that I could be beaten or raped, or that I could suffer by some other means, so that I could move beyond the experience and turn into a better, more complete person than I was before. I've found myself frustrated with the fact that I come from an upper-middle class family and have parents who will pay for my college. Has anyone experienced similar feelings? Should we all strive to suffer to some extent so that we can eventually become better people with greater understandings of the world?