11th December 2005
To anyone who has suffered it, what does pain mean? There is the pain of consequence, of something we have done and there is the pain of apparent arbitrary affliction, the ravaging torment of an inner demon, perhaps. Of the pain of consequence there is an education, of a sorts, that can be drawn, that one can be resigned to or ignore. But of the apparent arbitrary affliction, what associate value does it have? Pain is not a harbinger of philosophic or artistic or scientific genius or talent. It does not draw one closer to another, except in the telling. If anything, the experience of pain isolates the individual from normal discourse. Therefore, I ask again, what purpose does pain have?
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