Suffering Exists So We Have Something to Do

HOW WE SPEAK AND BEHAVE affects our relationship with the world. It affects how people see us, judge us, and decide how to interact with us.

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Paul Sutherland is on the Board of GAIA and is the founder of Utopia Foundation, a public charity with a "give with confidence" score of 100 percent from Charity Navigator. [e-mail].

Exhibiting optimism is our choice. It is healthier; expressing positive emotions extends our lives. The groundbreaking Nun Study by researchers at the University of Kentucky and numerous follow-on studies by researchers at Harvard and other institutions have documented that people who exhibit optimism, happiness, and other positive character attributes live longer and have less heart disease, depression, and a host of other ailments.

The Nun Study started in the 1980s by tracking a group of nuns who belonged to the School Sisters of Notre Dame. The study, which is still ongoing and has since spread to other participants, tracks many personal and physical attributes and how they impact aging.

Becoming a nun is a big commitment and those nuns who joined the School Sisters of Notre Dame in the 1930s and 1940s were, I imagine, like volunteers seeking to help societybut giving 100 percent commitment of their time, talent, and treasure. The '30s and '40s were no cakewalk of prosperity and peace. World War I had ended but the Great Depression was rampant, and, not unlike Trump or Putin today, Hitler was stirring up racism and nationalism and vilifying people based on sex, race, religion, and sexual orientation.