Discovering more joy does not save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak. In fact, we may cry more easily, but we will also laugh more easily. We are more alive, and perhaps that's the ultimate goal of life: to be more alive.
Book: The Book of Joy
From archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu:
Discovering more joy does not, save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak. In fact, we may cry more easily, but we will laugh more easily too. Perhaps we are just more alive. Yet as we discover more joy, we can face suffering in a way that ennobles rather than embitters. We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreaks without being broken.
Joy and hardship are not mutually exclusive. If anything, joy may make us cry more easily. But it also makes us laugh more easily. We become more sensitive to the full spectrum of human experience.
Therefore, the goal of a meaningful life is not to avoid the inevitability of suffering. Instead, it is to develop internal resilience to withstand heartbreak without being broken.
The opposite of dead is to be alive. Perhaps the ultimate goal of life is just to be more alive.
This also reminds me of Leibniz's Best Possible Worlds, where he tries to answer the question, "Why do tragedies exist if God is omnipotent?"