I have a headache.
It isn't one of those blinding migranes, or one of those hangover headaches, or a stress headache. Most likely it is slight dehydration. Not a big deal, even for someone who never gets headaches.
But it does cause me to think about something. Previously, I mentioned that unemployment was the second most unpardonable sin in western society, because so much of our identity is tied up in what we do.
The single most unforgivable thing in western society today is pain.
Kick the idea around a bit. We will forgive anything today in the name of lessening or avoiding pain. Drugs (legal or otherwise), lies, alchohol, even killing people to a certain extent. There is almost nothing we will not do to avoid pain.
"So what's wrong with that?" you may ask. "Pain, if you recall from your 10th-grade Biology class, hurts. Avoidance of pain is natural. That is why we pull a hand away from a hot stove."
No. We pull our hand away from a hot stove in order to avoid damage. Pain in that case is nothing more than a physical reaction to damage. But to avoid pain must not be the be-all and end-all of existence. Ask anyone that has ever known a leper, and they will tell you the devestating results of disengaging the pain mechanism.
So where am I going with all this? To some extent, it's simply an observation. But to someone out there, I would say the following. Perhaps you are suffering emotionally. It could be the end of a significant relationship, the loss of a loved one, or even the death of a pet. It is not for me to say what pain is significant, or what should not hurt. But I can tell you this; To withdraw from life as a child's hand from a hot stove is no answer. And while no amount of advice will lessen the impact of your experience, and nothing that I could ever say or do will take the pain away, taking the pain away isn't the answer anyway.
The canvas on which your life is painted is so much more than the blacks and whites that you can see from the immediate point of view. Perspective adds colour and texture to the line drawings that you see now. Don't run from pain. Embrace that which causes you to feel at all.
Well, I've babbled enough on this subject. Headaches are rather distracting, and I'm finding it hard to put my thoughts together coherently.