The unending paradox is that we do learn through pain.

L’Engle frames suffering as a persistent “paradox”: pain is intrinsically unwanted, yet it can become a teacher. The line suggests that growth often arrives not through comfort or ease but through experiences that expose limits, force reevaluation, and deepen empathy. Calling it “unending” implies this is not a one-time lesson but a recurring feature of human life—each new wound or loss can yield insight, maturity, or compassion. The statement also resists sentimentalizing pain: it does not claim pain is good, only that learning can occur through it, highlighting the tension between the reality of suffering and the possibility of meaning-making.