It's pain that teaches us to concentrate. A decade on the cushion can't compare To one agonizing hour of despair For the terrain it can elucidate.

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It's pain that teaches us to concentrate.
A decade on the cushion can't compare
To one agonizing hour of despair
For the terrain it can elucidate.

Perhaps, we think, it's given for the sweet
Relief of its cessation, when a joy
Envelopes and transports us; but this ploy
Was never necessary to complete
Our education. Well we envy those
Whose path entailed less suffering, or none,
Though they attain to an exalted place.

No, pain, we must admit, is what we chose
When we embarked (for adventure and fun)
On this wild ride, life's lusty steeplechase.

- JJM = #65 in the I Ching Sonnet Project

Authors Bio:

Josh Mitteldorf, de-platformed senior editor at OpEdNews, blogs on aging at http://JoshMitteldorf.ScienceBlog.com. Read how to stay young at http://AgingAdvice.org.

Educated to be an astrophysicist, he has branched out from there to mathematical modeling in a variety of areas, including evolutionary ecology and economics. He has taught mathematics, statistics, and physics at several universities. He is an avid amateur pianist, and father of two adopted Chinese girls, now grown. He travels to Beijing each year to work with a lab studying the biology of aging. His book on the subject is "Cracking the Aging Code", http://tinyurl.com/y7yovp87.