Shade Tree Theology

Neither religious nor non-religious people are exempt from suffering. It is part of the human experience. Despite all of the modern luxuries of our civilization, there is no absolute "solution" to human suffering.  If a person is hungry, there is food. If a person is cold, there is heat, but true suffering has no instant solution. When a person "hits rock bottom", such as coming to impasse with addiction, death of a loved one,  terminal illness, or something of a seemingly lesser severity there is no true solution. Distractions like drugs (legal or illegal), alcohol, materialism, and unhealthy relationships, along with being a mechanism to induce pain,  are also often a common pacifier, but the pain is still intact, just temporarily disguised while it hides out and strengthens. The expression "time heals all wounds" may be true in some cases, but it has never been prescribed for pancreatic cancer.  Unquenchable suffering, along with it's close associat...

My toddler son and wife were playing baseball, and my son hit a ball that subsequently hit my 6 year old daughter in the eye. The ball was soft and plastic, but it hurt my daughter and she immediately began crying. My daughter went to my wife to be comforted and when she did she passed out.  I was getting ready for work and heard my wife screaming for me. When I made it to the living room my daughter was crying in my wife’s arms. My wife explained to me what had happened and then told me she felt like my daughter had a seizure. My daughter was scared and crying but didn’t seem critical.  I made some phone calls to some medical resources and my wife made my daughter an appointment with our pediatrician that morning. While we did all of this my daughter seemed ok, so reluctantly, I went on to work. I was incredibly worried and anxious at work. I alternated between praying, worrying, and making feeble attempts to get anything done at work. I was tracking my wife’s cell phone loca...