The Hero Myth & Our Triumphant Suffering

How noble is the one who pushes through pain and overcomes great obstacles? in spite of  the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune?" Unyielding in the face of suffering, such a heroic figure seems to suggest that there is glory in not bending to the voices of suffering that echo inside of us. These figures are upheld throughout the ages as exemplars of human nobility---of the greatest that we are each capable of, of what we all should aspire to. 

And yet, it appears that there is more to the story.

I cannot help but wonder what kind of world we create when suffering's voice is merely a sound that we feel compelled to overcome all the time. I wonder what kind of a society we encourage when suffering is seen as merely a personal struggle that each and everyone of us should find the steely resolve to be triumphant over. Do we unwittingly create a society that is hardened to care and compassion in relation to suffering and its many shades and timbres? Do we create a culture where suffering has no value except as a weight that the force of our personal will is supposed to uphold day after day? Do we maybe create---subtly, over time--a world indifferent to the various calls and claims that suffering makes upon us , if for no other reason than because our preferred mythology has been that suffering is what heroes and heroines overcome, and that is all suffering is good for---another mountain to climb and conquer?

When suffering is merely that which is to be conquered by our will, by our technology, by our spirituality and metaphysics what do we miss in viewing suffering so narrowly? And what do we create, inevitably, as a result of so narrow a view of suffering's continued presence in our many realms and worlds?