To have become a deeper man is the privilege of those who have suffered.

When Irish author and playwright Oscar Wilde wrote that suffering was a “privilege,” he did so from experience. Wilde, who was convicted and imprisoned for having a sexual relationship with a man, understood that overcoming adversity gives us perspective, appreciation, and understanding. While incarcerated at Reading Gaol in England in 1897, Wilde wrote a letter to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, describing the spiritual awakening he experienced in prison. The letter was eventually published in 1905, five years after Wilde’s death, under the title "De Profundis," a Latin term meaning “from the depths.”