Why can Grief be Good for us?

The main question that Michael Cholbi answers in his paper, "Finding the Good in Grief: What Augustine Knew that Meursault Could Not," is "Why Can Grief be Good for us?" And there are many different facets to this question that Cholbi explores; one of these is the topic of grief's painfulness. Cholbi gives the example of inoculation and how, when an individual decides to get a vaccine, he or she must endure some amount of pain in order to successfully be inoculated. The idea behind this is that the small amount of pain is worth it to endure because the benefit of being immune to a certain disease afterwards outweighs the amount of discomfort from the prick of the needle. Analogously, the amount of pain that a person receives from grieving pales in comparison to the act of not going through the process of grieving and, in turn, self-destructing (you commit suicide) because you didn't take the time to recover. From this perspective, grief is just a dilemma, and the result of not grieving causes more damage than the pain that would be effected on the person who grieves. Cholbi rejects the analogy of inoculation because the argument comes to a dead end. This analogy only suggests that grief can be good; however, it does not provide for why grief can be good for us. Later in Cholbi's paper, he explains how grief can be good for us in terms of gratification. He presents the idea that a little bit of pain can be good and can make life more valuable, just as the sadness of the death of Romeo & Juliet gives the tragedy the greater value of sentiment. This is one of Cholbi's main arguments for why grief can be good for us: In order for grief to be in our benefit, it has to have some kind of greater value. In the most obvious way, grief can be good for us because it provides us with the ability to have sentiment, but it also allows for a process of recovery from emotional turmoil.