When I was much younger -a child, in fact- I was very ill at the hospital. After the surgery, a doctor told me it was good I was in pain. It meant I will get better.
"Because there can be no healing without suffering" he said.
At times I'm sure he is right, but there are days I think it's just bullshit. The typical phrase people says when things are getting shittier. Like flight attendants that with a fake smile say "everything's gonna be alright" while the fucking plane is going down towards certain death for everyone on board.
From a medical point of view, I know it's true: an open wound hurts like hell, then a lot of physiological responses to the injury make the healing process a painful one, until only scar tissue remains.
But what about minds? What about chest wounds where there is no blood, the ones where your heart feels like dying and you have no more tears to shed? What about the pain of a broken dream? Is it still true? Must you suffer through healing, feel unbearable pain, in order to smile again?
Moreover, scars, of both the body and the soul, still ache years later and phantom pain always remains.
I fear the answer is that only sorrow is certain and we are all damaged goods.