‘“But, by God!” said Harriet, “I won’t
be a coward. I’ll go and be damned to
it. Nothing can hurt me worse than I’ve
been hurt already. And what does it
matter after all?”’ - Dorothy Sayers in Gaudy Night.
Apart from the choice of expletives
Dorothy Sayers is making an important life observation. Those of us who have lived long enough to
suffer the pains common to fallen humanity know the truth of what she is
saying.
Once you have suffered, new suffering
offered doesn’t bear the same sting. “I’ve been there before and it’s not a
frightful unknown.”
St. Peter, who knew suffering, said,
“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces
endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and
hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our
hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” [I Peter 5:3-5].
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