A recent series of essays exploring why we should embrace the difficult
It’s easy to get frustrated, angry and/or discouraged when the very meaningful and important things in life go awry. And if you’re like me, even when the mundane and unimportant things don’t go smoothly.
Here’s a sample from Nathaniel’s first essay:
“The blessings of modernity—running water, electricity, medicine, ready access to vast stores of information and art—are profound. But our modern, consumerist society is to a great extent a single, vast, cohesive machine designed to enable us to deny hard truths, delay wrenching choices, evade irreversible sacrifices, and basically avoid pain or hardship of any description.
We divert staggering levels of resources to producing consumer goods like sophisticated spectacles and disposable physical goods. In one century we went from the first manned flying machines to landing on the moon, but in my lifetime humans have never traveled beyond low-earth orbit. Instead, the proudest technical achievements of my generation have been to draw ever closer to the day when the “instant” in instant gratification will become a literal reality: downloads are faster, binges are longer, delivery is same-day. Just don’t ask what it’s all for.”
