"It is better to go to the house of a mourner than to the house of feasting."
Ecclesiastes 7:2
Progress and achievement in life come from identifying our challenges and dealing with them effectively.
and anything that leads to escape from reality is destructive.
The house of feasting is literally "a house of drinking." In Solomon’s days, like today, many people
got drunk, talked senselessly and pretended that their world was stress and problem free. Such "feasting" constituted
an escape from reality and did great harm to the participants.
The house of the mourner, on the other hand, is a solemn place, where people are reminded of their own mortality.
There we recognize, at least momentarily, that our stay on earth has a limit, and that so many of the things that we spend
our lives to attain are left behind when we die. Our only permanent acquisitions are our spiritual achievements. The house
of the mourner actually brings us to a greater appreciation of reality.
Is it more pleasant to go to the house of the mourner? Of course not. It is "better" however, because it
contributes to our spiritual growth.
