"Call  a life worse," [Plato] said, "if it leads a soul to become more unjust,and better if it leads the soul to become more just."

We have no way of knowing, of course, why some are born in health and affluence, while others enter broken bodies or broken homes, or emerge into a realm of war or hunger. So we cannot give definite meaning to our place in the world, or to our neighbor's.  But Plato's reflections should give us pause and invite both humility and hope.  Humility because if we chose our lot in life there is every reason to suspect merit, and not disfavor, is behind disadvantaged birth.  A blighted life may have been the more courageous choice--at least it was for Plato.  Though the first act of the play was obscure its hidden details make any judgments in this second act so much foolish speculation.  So how can we feel pride in our own blessedness, or condescension at another's misfortune?  And Plato's reflections should give us hope, because his myth reminds us that suffering can be sanctifying, that pain is not punishment, and that the path to virtue is fraught with opposition.

Terryl & Fiona Givens, The God Who Weeps, pg. 60-61