An interesting question.
It highlights the reality that as a species we are so very happy to just veg and stagnate if there is nothing we have to contend with.
You have to have problems in life to force the very best of you to the surface so you can deal with them and rise above them.
Coasting can be fun.
But sooner or later you hit rock bottom, and have to do a lot of peddling (trouble, effort, pain, trial) just to get to a point where you can enjoy coasting again.
Thoughts.
© 2026 – SoulSequel
9 responses to “How much trouble would you want there not to be?”
We bring our own problems, we don’t need anyone else’s. But let’s change your premise just a bit. What if you were the only one without problems? It would be quite lucrative to be able to solve certain types of problems or take them over for other people for a time. And when you didn’t want to deal with them anymore, you could give them back without consequences.
To answer your question, i can get by fine without problems. There would be no stress whatsoever in my life
@Jear77
I don’t know if we get to change the base realities of . . . reality without running the risk of becoming delusional.
Stress and struggle are foundational. I was going to say to growth, as in even the tree struggles against gravity and grows stronger for it. (Plants grown in zero-gravity can seem hearty but even 0.1 G renders them “invalid”).
But the stressors caused by “differentials” perterb the air and water into life-giving cycles, drive the formation of stars and galaxies, give rise to the various cosmic forces that order reality.
Only the power of human delusion can (for a brief time) can hold that static equilibrium is in any way “good”. But we live in a very delusional time where most casual “people on the street” have no notion of what various “child races” 1000’s of years before us said about the interplay of chaos and order; and how an abundance of either of them was toxic to life. The most rewarding, meaningful, powerful life lies right on the margin between order and chaos.
(Are you aware of any of your “ancestors” who might have actually said or even written down wisdoms about these things?)
@griz yet if tbe change is too great, organisms die. 3 minutes without air. 3 hours in extreme weather. 3 days without water. 3 weeks without food. You can’t scientifically prove problems are a neccesary component of any organism’s survival.
@Jear77
You are stronger than you give yourself credit for.
There is ample scientific evidence that stressors are the evolutionary process that dictates the survival of a strong species (or variant of a species) better adapted to the existing conditions, over a weaker one that is not.
So why run away from that which will make you stronger; or shut down your learning centers and hide behind a wall just because you’re being tested?
@griz there’s eustress and distress. The former is good, the latter, will ultimately kill. Mankind is so inundated with the latter, is always in a fight or flight mode, it’s no small wonder that people cling to the idea of a paradise after death that religion grants. As for me, oblivion is enough.
@Jear77
Forgive me for saying so, but I thought I clearly heard you say in another thread that your preferred eustress, is the absolute absence of stress. That lowers the bar so low that even a worm couldn’t avoid it and would have to stop dead.
Consider a muscle. The proper eustress to make it grow, can and often does cause temporary distress. But as one continues to exercise it, the bar is raised and as the muscle grows stronger so it can endure more eustress (necessary to growth) without it becoming crippling distress.
BTW, your impression of paradise after death is not Scriptural. “Today you shall be with me in paradise” — Jesus’ words to the repentant thief on the cross beside him. That man didn’t die that day.
But his lost soul was transformed into a Living Spirit and at the moment the redemptive sacrifice was complete, he moved into an entirely different way of existing — as a child of the kingdom.
The greatest “prize”, is ours today. We don’t have to wait for pie-in-the-sky.
We are unique from the animals, they are a diversio n to keep us preoccupied.
Main troubles i deal with are “how to keep the world going under this current lie”… in general we are like the birds and squirrels, God gives us what we need when we need it.
People want to “do” something, instead of accept grace… so the world turns on that inertia.
I’m ok with challenges, but I would like to avoid the kind of trouble that is specific to survival. Knowing I have a roof over my head, the means to heat and power it and access to food should be inalienable rights. Unfortunately, we are required to make the effort associated with earning that privilege. I wonder how much more productive we could all be if that was a given and we could focus on other goals.
I see where you are going here. We need challenges to get “better”
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’. We are not now that strength which in old days. Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;. One equal temper of heroic hearts,. Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Ulysses Alfred Lord Tennyson
@spitfire3dc
As a youngster I knew someone who died just because they didn’t know any essentials of survival, so I trained myself up in the basics. So even this kind of challenge I’m OK with.
And I’m mindful of just how much of value I learned along the way in struggling most of the day for a workable survival shelter; and in the 2 days it took me to learn how to start a fire without matches. And then days to learn to construct functional traps . . . and even longer waiting for them to be productive . . . (Unless you can positively identify edible plants the risk of poisoning is too high and your best bet for food in a survival situation, is living creatures. It’s safe 99% of the time. 100% if you leave those Polar Bear and Ringed Seal livers alone!).
One of the greatest lessons, beyond self-sufficiency, was learning to move at Nature’s pace. We want to move at a blistering pace.
But most (all?) of the best lessons and wisdom, seem to come from “heroic” venture, and come hand-in-hand with struggle and hardships overcome. Everything from the adventure of beast survival to higher education to social interaction to having children to having a successful career . . . or a meaningful life.
Too many people seem to lament that their life has little or no meaning . . . but persist on hiding from “trouble and stress” of only paths that can give a life meaning.