Tomorrow Was Meant to Be Brighter

Every generation sees the world through the lens of its own struggles. Those who have endured hardship often look upon those who have not with a mix of pride and frustration. “We suffered, we toiled, we endured. Why don’t they have to?”

But this is the wrong question. The real question is: “Wasn’t this the goal?”

The Purpose of Progress

Effort is not wasted if it makes life better for those who come next. A farmer does not curse the fertile soil that spares their children from hunger. A builder does not resent the shelter that keeps their descendants warm. Every struggle that creates a better future fulfills its purpose.

Yet, when the world changes, it does not become easier—only different. Physical labor may lessen, but mental strain increases. Manual hardship gives way to new pressures: information overload, relentless competition, uncertainty in an ever-shifting landscape. The weight of survival has not vanished; it has simply changed form.

Understanding Without Comparison

To measure another’s hardship against one’s own is to misunderstand the nature of struggle. What was difficult then was difficult then. What is difficult now is difficult now. Neither negates the other.

The wise do not resent the progress they helped create. They do not cling to suffering as a badge of honor, nor do they demand that hardship be preserved for its own sake. They recognize that true strength is not in the endurance of pain, but in the ability to adapt, grow, and ensure that fewer must suffer in the future.

If those who come after us face fewer of our hardships, we should not lament—it means we have done well. The real failure would be if nothing had changed at all.