Paradox

A quote from the book Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez:

"How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one's culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light."

I've heard it said that each person's capacity to experience joy is in direct relation to the amount of suffering they have endured. I'm not sure that is true. If it were, would we all go hit ourselves in the head with a hammer just so we could feel so blissful when the pain stopped?