Aristotle Quote

Aristotle once said “[w]e cannot learn without pain.” I find this statement to be

very true. Without pain, how would we know anything is “real”? Pain is just the

realization that something is real, and something is possible. Pain can be physical

or

emotional, depending on the situation. Physical pain is not the only entrance to learning.

Emotional pain is probably more knowledgeable than physical pain itself, because

sometimes it lasts longer, and leaves a deeper impression.

My first example of this is simply a child learning new things through experience.

A parent tells a child not to touch a hot stove, because it will burn. This child does not

know what “burn” is, and is curious to find out. This child sees the stove, and it is

tempting. They reach up and touch it, and a hot, searing pain rushes through them. This is

their first step to learning what a “stove” is, and what “hot” means. Had this child not

touched the stove, they would not know what this “hot” feels like, and they would not

have learned why to not touch a stove while it is burning.

Incorporating my own experience into an example, when I was a young child, no

older than one, I was told not to drink from this bottle with a long straw on it. Although I

do not remember my exact thoughts at the time, I’m assuming that my first thought was

that since this can contained a straw, why could I not drink from it? I went behind our

television and drank some of it, disregarding my parents’ warnings, and later on

discovered it was VCR cleaner, which was poisonous. My parents had to take me to the

hospital and get it flushed out of my system, but I learned what “pain” felt like, and that

you do not always drink from things which contain straws.

Another example is of a person’s “first love”, or “first heartbreak”. Although we

do not truly have a heart break, we do feel emotional pain. Without this pain, though, we

might not learn to not give our hearts out so easily. But, “heartbreak” is not always simply

“love”, or relationships. It can also occur when someone close to a person passes away.

When my grandmother passed away, I felt this extreme emotional “emptiness”, which later

turned into emotional pain. I felt that I had not spent enough time with her, and that I did

not appreciate her enough. This, in turn, made me appreciate the people around me, such

as my parents and other grandparents, more. Thus, I learned a lesson to never disregard

those close relationships you have.

Lastly, the war in Iraq is a large example. George W. Bush saw these Iraqi people

as a threat, which some of them might have been, but he sent troops which killed more

than necessarily. Innocent bystanders were killed, because the United States did not know

if they were dangerous or not, or they merely got in the way. Our army killed with what

seemed little remorse, until it later hit that we had, indeed, killed many innocent people,

while the true “criminals” were still out there, in hiding. Since there was no way to take

this back, one would think this would be a way to learn that sometimes, going into

something without planning it better is not the right idea, but apparently it was not,

because we sent our troops right back out to kill and be killed. I guess that’s the real

lesson we’re being taught here, “kill or be killed.”