The Pain of Being Human

by Eugene Kennedy

"There is a kind of pain in life," writes Eugene Kennedy, "that has nothing to do with sickness or our sometime savagery. It is the suffering of healthy persons, as undramatic as it is inevitable, as commonplace as it is uncomforted. It is the pain with a thousand private faces, the pain that comes from just being human."
In more than 60 insightful meditations, Kennedy helps us to better understand our human condition, and to live with humor, compassion, and purpose. His book is not a cure for our loneliness or doubt or the thousand other pains that come with being alive, but it can get us through a bad day - even bad weeks - and help us to help others do the same.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Self Help, Psychology

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 1974

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't finish this. Firstly, the writing very much reflects it's time. It was written in the 70s and so refers to women as housewives and men as breadwinners. After the third gender stereotype reference I had to put it down (I realise this is not necessarily the author's fault because these viewd reflects society at that time). Also there were A LOT of religious references, which I don't necessarily mind but any mention of meaning seemed to be connected to God. As a strong atheist I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with that? This book was on my course reading list but if I'm honest I'm not sure why. I can't say it's a bad book but it's certainly very outdated and not readable for me personally, given my strong gender equality and atheist beliefs.

[Ed Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Pain of Being Human? More like The Pain of Reading This Book, am I right? Naw, it wasn’t that bad. The real problem is that it has too many topics and not enough depth—more than 80 short reflections across 280 pages. I would have preferred a small fraction of the essays offered here but developed with illustrations and underlying psychology, theology, etc.

Just a small handful of takeaways here by way of sampling:

+We are mistake-makers, we always will be, and the sooner we are able to forgive ourselves for it, the richer will be our enjoyment of life.

+”Loneliness,” Thomas Wolfe once wrote, “far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.”

+If we want to know whether we are being guided by the Spirit, we can ask whether we are being led into truly redemptive relationships with others. If we are not, then it is some voice other than the Spirit’s to which we are attending.

[Utsav Matukumalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very close to my heart because this was the first one in its genre (Philosophy) that I ever read and it opened my eyes to a lot of new ways of looking at the world.
However, the book gets way to religious in certain parts of the text, I guess that is to do with Eugene Kennedy's background as a catholic priest.
I wish this wasn't the case and it was more of a pure philosophical text, that would have made the experience much better.

[Jayden Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

i did read this book miraculously at a time that i needed it. there were so many beautiful & insightful things that truly did hit me. especially in regards to love and ….. the pain of being human …..

my only critiques are that sometimes what Eugene Kennedy is saying does feel random and the book does have a lot of religious themes. i will say, however, that the religious themes don’t overpower the narrative unlike other books i have read.

[გიორგი გურჯიევი · Rating 1 out of 5]

Christian trash

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

your secrets are revealed
fantastic one