For my entire life I have avoided the very idea of suffering. It’s not that I don’t feel sympathy for others when I witness others going through challenging times, but as for me—nope! With the arrogance of youth, I remained convinced that even when things looked disastrous in my life, I could always work them out. Like Pollyanna, I didn’t deny bad things happen to good people, I just felt certain that with the right approach anything could be overcome. Then when I came upon the New Thought philosophy, it gave me the tools (or at least the narrative) about how to do just that. But you know what? I’m much older now and I can’t help but look around and notice that people are suffering through no apparent fault of their own. Sometimes, no matter what you do, stuff happens. And yes, if I’m honest, there have been times when I have suffered physically and mentally. Maybe that’s why when I came across Richard Rohr’s new book, The Tears of Things—Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage I knew there was something there for me to consider.