From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   When I was 16, as a student at a Christian school I had a conversation with my   
   mother about what I called common human nature. She told me that there was no   
   such thing, and that she never wanted to hurt anyone.   
      
   I realized that she was right.   
      
   At this point in my life I have no ill will toward anyone. Clearly there are   
   times when people need to be faced with consequences of their actions, and   
   clearly there are times when people need to act in wiser ways. That does not   
   mean that they have to    
   suffer. It means that they need to make better decisions.   
      
   In most cases, when someone is doing the wrong thing, it should be possible to   
   convince him that he is doing the wrong thing. When their children do things   
   wrong, many parents punish them when what they really need to do is explain to   
   the child why what    
   the child is doing is wrong. In most cases the child will understand and react   
   accordingly.   
      
   The suffering is not the point. Wisdom is. Sometimes it takes suffering to   
   achieve wisdom, and sometimes it doesn’t. My daughter hasn’t had much   
   suffering in her life, but she has always been very wise. Her first social   
   interaction was coming up to    
   another little girl and hugging her. When I talked to her about yuckie people   
   she said, “There are no yuckie people.” Here is someone who has achieved   
   wisdom without suffering. Whereas there are many people who suffer who   
   aren’t wise at all.   
      
   Does suffering lead to wisdom? Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t.   
   Once again, there are times when people need to be faced with consequences of   
   their actions; but in many other cases it is possible to achieve the same   
   result with persuasion.    
   Suffering, in itself, should not be encouraged. Wisdom should be. And that can   
   be achieved with or without suffering.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)