Perpetual Darkness

I have been contemplating pain and transgressions lately. Many people strive to live free of these things: to do as little wrong and hurt/be hurt by as few people or things as possible. However, it is difficult to escape either completely. Sometimes we are the one committing the act and sometimes we are the receiver. I've noticed that after one experiences pain or commits a wrongdoing, a shadow is cast over him. His world becomes tinted and his views a little darker. Pain and wrongdoing, however, have degrees and therefore varying levels of darkness: the worse the affliction, the darker the shadow. 

Yet I've also observed something interesting happen when people learn from their darkness. It never goes away - because it occurred in time - but instead of hovering over someone and clouding her view, it attaches to her and casts off in a different direction. It reminds me of a 3D object: the shadow becomes a part of the object itself and gives it depth. 

I have found that my own pain and the pain of others - if we learn from it - makes us wiser. It makes us more knowledgable and gives us deeper insight to our humanity, because we actually experience the workings of our brain and body, i.e. the ruling of logic, emotion, adrenaline, hormones, and reflexes. Up until the point of living an event, we are ignorant of it or we've only heard it mentioned. But when it happens, we see, touch, and taste this knowledge...whether we want to or not. 

For better or for worse, I find myself drawn to those who have endured some kind of significant pain in their lives and have grown to become better people because of it. In my experience, many of them show they are more capable of understanding or show more empathy than those whose pain experience is relatively light. Of course, I do not wish suffering on anyone. I want people to be happy and live well. However, I cannot deny the insight that comes with adversity nor the greater depth with darker, everlasting shadows. This brings me to a question: is it better to be blissfully ignorant or scarred and aware? Is the knowledge worth the darkness?