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to mystic institute.org. The title of this talk is, Why So Sad? The Sorrows that Kill and

the Sorrows that Save. Before I launch into any of the specific content, I wanted to commend

you on showing up for a talk with a very complicated

title. I'm always aware whenever I'm giving a talk that most of the people who show up didn't

have to show up. And when I'm speaking, I have a mild background curiosity about why each person

who came came.

Now, though it would be easier for me to ask each of you right now why you came,

I'm going to take a more complicated route and tell you why I think you might have come

if the title of this talk had been one of the earlier, simpler versions that I was considering.

If you had shown up to Asidia, the sorrow that kills, you would have known that Asidiah is something bad,

and you would have come to the talk to figure out whether you had that bad thing, and if you had it, how to get away from it.

If you had shown up to the talk St. Thomas on the problem of pain, you would have come either

because you misread pain as evil and you're interested in the problem of evil, or because you

find problems to be irresistible opportunities to look for solutions,

and you're curious to work out a solution to the problem of pain.

If you'd showed up to St. Thomas on sorrow as the solution to the problem of pain,

you would have been disappointed to have been told the solution,

but you would have come wanting to know in what way sorrow saves.

My hope, now that I have suggested all these motives to you,

is that you've adopted each of them, more or less,

and that you'll hold you here, at least until

...