George Saunders’ line reframes suffering as something we often manufacture internally rather than merely endure from the outside. Instead of blaming pain on loss, rejection, or misfortune, he points to a subtler culprit: the hardening of belief into certainty. When we feel sure—about who is right, what should have happened, or what someone “really meant”—we leave little room for surprise, complexity, or grace.
From there, hurt becomes almost automatic. Certainty turns events into verdicts, so a disagreement isn’t just a difference but an offense; a mistake isn’t just an error but a betrayal of what “must” be true. Saunders suggests that the sting intensifies not because reality is unbearable, but because our certainty makes reality feel unacceptable. [...]
