Why, as M. Scott Peck has so aptly put it in "The Road Less Traveled," "Life is difficult"?

Question

Happy New Year!

Namaste

Peace and Love

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 20

Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval. 1920.

Answer 1

Why is life difficult?

Because, not everything works out well and conveniently and because "personal growth is a "complex, arduous and lifelong task." - see quotes below.

The following is quoted from http://www.amazon.com/Road-Less-Traveled-25th-Anniversary/dp/0743243153

Even to this day, Peck remains at the forefront of spiritual psychology as a result of The Road Less Traveled. In the era of I'm OK, You're OK, Peck was courageous enough to suggest that "life is difficult" and personal growth is a "complex, arduous and lifelong task."

The following is quoted from
http://www.butler-bowdon.com/roadlesst.html

[The Road Less Traveled] contains none of the alluring promises of boundless joy and happiness that are the feature of personal development writing, yet has still been a massive bestseller. Famously beginning with the words, 'Life is difficult', it covers such gloomy topics as the myth of romantic love, evil, mental illness, and the author's psychological and spiritual crises.

Perhaps because of its lack of rosiness, it is easy to give this book our confidence. The Road Less Traveled is inspirational, but in an old-fashioned way, putting self-discipline at the top of list of values for a good life.

Answer 2

Very good. In the quest for the Holy Grail "each entered the forest where it was the darkest".