Concerning Comfort

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."

Winston Churchill

I've been struck recently by how reluctant we are to expose the next generation to the experience of pain or failure. 

My brother had an Endoscopy on Monday in Northern Ireland. The day before my sister was explaining the procedure to Bethany and me over Skype and explained that my brother wouldn't be given an anesthetic but would be awake and expected to participate in the procedure. Bethany was horrified as both of us have experienced an Endoscopy here in America and Bethany also had one in Germany. The idea that she would be awake and a participant in the procedure was clearly beyond the Pale. 

I remember when I was preparing for a Colonoscopy last summer and shared that I was a little apprehensive as I had undergone the procedure before in my twenties in Northern Ireland. Bethany who had also had the procedure before asked me what was worrying me about it. I replied that the procedure was very uncomfortable, and it had been a little traumatic to endure the last time. She looked at me with wide eyed shock and asked if the anesthetic had failed to work.  I looked back with equally wide eyed shock and exclaimed: "what anesthetic?!?" I had finally realized that the next day the American doctor would knock me out before the procedure! 

Then I was at a clinic yesterday to receive a Vitamin C infusion. I was initially confused by the large drip bag and the 50 minute time frame, as well as a little bemused by the fact I was offered a large recliner and a pillow for my arm to rest on. You see, in Germany, I was only ever offered a hard plastic seat in a cold antiseptic laboratory room in my Doctor's clinic with a 20 minute time-frame because they were giving me straight vitamin C even if that might cause me some minor discomfort due to cramping. 

Yesterday the American nurse giving me the infusion laughed at my confusion and bemusement and explained that her other job was in a hospital in post-surgery, where she dealt daily with people who were surprised when they woke up after surgery and were experiencing pain. 

So now you've read some funny stories about the cultural differences I've experienced in my life, you might be wondering if there was a point to today's Blog post.

On Wednesday I sat in a meeting with other college ministers and faculty discussing how to help students handle rejection. I offered the observation that perhaps we were offering too many cushions to soften the painful stop at the end of the fall of failure. 

Life will produce numerous opportunities to experience the discomfort of failure and the discomfort of pain. If we habitually cushion the next generation from the experience of suffering perhaps we are cursing them with the inability to cope with a life that will inevitably produce pain. 

I am all for giving anesthetic for painful procedures when there is no valid reason for the individual to suffer, but perhaps I don't need a recliner, and a bag of Magnesium laced fluids added to the Vitamin C, so that I might painlessly have a Vitamin C infusion. 

Perhaps people like me should actively remove some of the recliners and cushions our culture keeps placing in our young friends way as they try to experience the reality of life. 

Perhaps as a society we should be concerned by the level of comfort we are teaching our kids to expect from life. 

I have lived a life of discomfort, I have known more than my fair share of painful experiences and I am more than ready to have a few comforts placed in my path. But I'm 42 years old, with a life-time's worth of suffering that was used to craft the man I am today. A little comfort for my aging bones will probably be beneficial to longevity. 

But when I never allow the next generation to experience any kind of suffering, perhaps I am robbing them of the essential ingredients that helped make me the man I am today?

What do you think? Should I be concerned about comfort?