can we live a good life without suffering?

and notes on purpose

In the depths of the Great Depression, as millions grappled with unprecedented hardship, Viktor Frankl observed something peculiar in his psychiatric practice: those who maintained a sense of purpose, despite their circumstances, showed remarkable resilience. A Holocaust survivor himself, Frankl would later witness this phenomenon in the concentration camps, where he noticed that prisoners who held onto a reason to live, whether it was a family member waiting for them or an unfinished work, were more likely to survive. This observation would later form the foundation of his landmark work on meaning-centered therapy, but it also hints at a deeper truth about human nature that philosophers and scientists are still unraveling today: our complex relationship with suffering.

The question isn't whether we can live a happy life without suffering. No, that's too simplistic. The real question, the one that haunts the corners of our collective consciousness, is whether we can live a good life, a meaningful life, without certain kinds of suffering. Ancient Greek philosophers distinguished between hedonic pleasure and eudaimonic well-being — the difference between momentary happiness and the deeper satisfaction that comes from living in accordance with one's highest purpose. Consider a modern-day marathon runner. They voluntarily subject themselves to months of grueling training, blisters, muscle pain, and the infamous "wall" at mile 20. From a purely hedonistic perspective, this makes no sense. Yet ask any marathoner about their experience, and they'll tell you about the profound sense of achievement, the community they've found among fellow runners, and how the challenge has transformed their understanding of their own capabilities!