Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate,
That Time will come and take my love away.
This thought is as a death, which cannot choose
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 64
An answer perhaps to the eternal question of the need for human pain and suffering can be found, I think in the word ‘experience’. It is only in the experience of pain and suffering that we as human beings can know empathy. This is the only way in which two people can truly connect at a real and intimate level. This is the only way that one can truly know what the other knows. It is only in feeling the pain, in knowing of that experience that we truly and honestly share with another. This is where we come to that meeting place of true spiritual connection that enables us to know what is in the heart of the other. The defenses are gone and the truth of the other is known.
Very wise and true. So often we seek to run away from pain and suffering but it really is our greatest teacher.
ReplyDeleteI'v been reading your last few posts... Trying to get my head around some of the thoughts. BIG thoughts... Huge actually.
ReplyDeleteThis post has found me without words... I just wated you to know that I admire the bravery with which you are writing.
I agree with what you hve concluded - ISH... Sometimes, in the midst of it, I think I'd rather do away with empathy.
Guess we all have times where pain seems like too high a price....
Well I didn't say I liked that it is this way it just seemed to me to be true. I also don't think it's the only way we can know another, just one of the means for connection.
ReplyDeleteAnd that empathy can be a bugger. It's hard enough to deal with the painful events in our own lives without having to endure somebody elses too because it goes without saying that theirs becomes ours. It is part of the way of the world though.