Let's talk about pain. Pain comes in many forms. Physiological, psychological, emotional. We've all experienced pain in our lives and we all know that pain doesn't feel so good. I've experienced all kinds of pain in my life, like anybody else. These past ten years, in particular, I've really had quite an intimate relationship with pain. We know each other well. It's a part of me. From the totally debilitating pain of migraine headaches...to the psychological torture of prison...to the loss of dear friends...to the emotional hall-of-fame level pain via consequences of drug addiction and alcoholism...hunger, homelessness, psychosis...solitude, insanity and darkness. Pain. We all know pain. And it hurts.
Recently, scientists have discovered that we also inherit certain forms of pain from our parents and grandparents, etc. Geneticists and biologists have determined that the emotional pain experienced during traumatic events actually, in a way, get imprinted into our genetic codes and gets passed down generationally. It's an interesting new field called epigenetics, and a lot of what they are discovering makes a lot of sense.
I used to wonder why, at seemingly random times throughout my life, I felt a profoundly deep pain related to the suffering that occurred during the Holocaust. My paternal grandfather spent over two years in Auschwitz and other concentration camps and somehow survived. One can imagine the horrors he witnessed. His first wife and eight-year-old son murdered by the Nazis, in the gas chambers. And then just the time spent merely existing and surviving in such an environment for an extended period of time.....quite possibly a good contender for the absolute worst emotional and psychological pain in the history of humanity -- living as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp for over two years -- this stuff is apparently embedded somewhere, to some extent, in my genetic code -- passed down through my grandfather to my father to me. And I feel it. And it hurts.
I used to wonder why, at seemingly random times throughout my life, I felt a profoundly deep pain related to the suffering that occurred during the Holocaust. My paternal grandfather spent over two years in Auschwitz and other concentration camps and somehow survived. One can imagine the horrors he witnessed. His first wife and eight-year-old son murdered by the Nazis, in the gas chambers. And then just the time spent merely existing and surviving in such an environment for an extended period of time.....quite possibly a good contender for the absolute worst emotional and psychological pain in the history of humanity -- living as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp for over two years -- this stuff is apparently embedded somewhere, to some extent, in my genetic code -- passed down through my grandfather to my father to me. And I feel it. And it hurts.
It's true what Nietsche said: "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." It's through pain that we grow spiritually and it's through the experience of pain that we 'grow up' in general. I'm a much stronger person than I was ten years ago. Because of the pain. I'm also wiser and more mature because of what I've experienced and seen along my journey.
When I listen to the crybaby politicians in the United States bitch and moan about how people are suffering because they can't get their shit together in Washington......everyone's got an opinion as to how bad certain people are suffering and whose fault it is. A lot of talking and talking and talking and fingerpointing. There is such a gigantic disconnect between the politicians and the people they are purported to represent. This is why all you see is talking and no solutions. It's all bullshit. And of course, like every other problem, the very root of the evil underlying this whole mess in America is called MONEY. It's the money that allows these people to keep bitching and moaning and whining like spoiled children. They have money, which means they continue to live in comfort, so there is no sense of urgency for them. Do you understand what I'm saying here? The people in power (more often than not) have not experienced the pain of the people they are supposed to represent.
One thing most people agree on is this: the sick and the poor are in the most pain, all the time. When times are good, the sick and poor suffer. When times are bad, the sick and poor suffer more. The sick and the poor should always be priority number one. For any civilized society. And especially for the richest country on the planet. Take care of the sick and the poor. The sick and the poor suffer more than anybody, all the time. The people in power haven't felt that kind of pain. And until they do, what needs to change will not change.
In other words, America hasn't hit 'bottom' yet. As a collective society, it needs to suffer some more, and it will, and it's unfortunate. When the people in control experience the daily pain of those at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, things will change. But that will likely never happen. If the pain gets bad enough, who knows, maybe revolution is around the corner.
-peace/love
jeremy
