AN ASK TOO FAR Three days ago, I got an e-mail from a guy asking me for thirty free copies of The War of Art. There’s another person who, because of a colleague-in-common, I’ve said a courteous no to more than once. He doesn’t stop. Each ask is followed by another ask. The most recent was an ask to read his book. “It won’t be a problem,” he assured me. “It’ll only take five hours.” Five hours? One guy wrote me out of the blue; I did a long interview for him, wrote a foreword for his book and even turned him on to my agent. Finally he started asking for favors for his friends. This was an ask too far. When I said no, he wrote back: “I always knew you were a Hollywood asshole.” Dude! I don’t live anywhere near Hollywood. Black Irish JAB #5, “Learning to Say No” A sociopathic ask is one put forward without a shred of empathy. The asker has no clue that you, the askee, have a life or a family or a career or any demands upon your time. He or she cares only about what you can do for them.

Suffering is the necessary condition for spiritual and physical growth.

Really, really I tell you, you will cry, and you will fall, and the world will be glorified.

You will be sad, and your sadness will become joy.

A woman is in pain when she gives birth to a child, and after the birth she doesn’t remember, and she is joyful.

—JOHN 16:20-21

Very often we say that we don’t like suffering, that we have too much suffering, but sufferings, all kinds of sufferings, are always good for us.

Sometimes, we even see that it is useful to suffer: children suffer when they grow, or when it is necessary that they clean an injury filled with filth.

We cannot see the usefulness of moral sufferings, but those sufferings, too, make us better and closer to God.

We grow thus: We come closer to God and God comes closer to us as our will becomes united with the will of God.

—RALPH WALDO EMERSON

You should look in suffering for the seeds of your future spiritual growth, or the bitterness of suffering will be severe.