ONE OF THE CONCLUSIONS WE WERE TRYING TO REACH in our first discussion is as follows: if life has a meaning, then suffering must also have a meaning. Of course, illness is part of suffering. “Part of,” we say, because “suffering” and “illness” are not the same thing. A person can suffer without being ill, and they can be ill without suffering. Suffering is such a purely human matter, which in itself is somehow already part of human life, that in some circumstances it is precisely this “nonsuffering” that can actually be an illness.
