> I think the pain of loss was just as severe, and the past was just more miserable than we think.
Why would the pain be equivalent, despite the vastly different context: life experiences and expectations, cultural details, worldviews, etc?
To be clear, there are many aspects/phases to the pain of loss. I can imagine that the initial suffering may be very similar, but that the integration/processing of the event in subsequent months and years be significantly different.
That's not to say that, overall, it wasn't worse back then, but I'm guessing the pain from a single loss event might be noticeably different due to the vastly different context.
Why would the pain be equivalent, despite the vastly different context: life experiences and expectations, cultural details, worldviews, etc?
To be clear, there are many aspects/phases to the pain of loss. I can imagine that the initial suffering may be very similar, but that the integration/processing of the event in subsequent months and years be significantly different.
That's not to say that, overall, it wasn't worse back then, but I'm guessing the pain from a single loss event might be noticeably different due to the vastly different context.