On Pain and Intimacy

Mammalian Solidarity

This is Ellie (below), she’s a stray dog who was taken in by a not-for-profit with her babies. Soon after this, her lymph nodes began to swell and she had to be left at an animal hospital, separated from her children and familiars at the not-for-profit, to be treated.

There are lots of situations where the distinctions between animal and human life are, well, distinct. But I think that within this story, which could be told about either a human or a dog while yielding the same compassion, we find those distinctions disappear.

A lot of human activity is aimed at eliminating pain. It goes so far in the West, so as to start conquering all forms of discomfort as well. This super-egoic, structural immune system—comprised of such systems as surveillance tech, ‘climate control’ engineering as well as much of the architectural game—Is helpful when it provided protective inwardness and respite, but alienating when it goes on to produce hyper-transparent gap-lessness and alienation from the self. And so we sit inside the decadent products of our fear of pain, plagued by a modern dread that I hope no dog will ever know.

The foolish part is, despite our herculean efforts, Pain still gets at us. Like Ellie, we may still find ourselves alone, without the comfort of other beloved bodies—the support of their gentle little touches, the intimacy that ‘kisses it better’—with some unknown pain growing in merciless waves within our own body. In these moments aren’t we just as animal as a dog? Aren’t we just another mammal sharing in a primal experience that cannot be conquered without conquering life? Perhaps we are better suited to treat it, but I don’t think we will ever out-smart living through it, and I don’t think we would be better off without it, either. What is required in these moments is not intelligence, it is something animals too appear to possess; compassion.

There is certainly a much larger story here. I think these ideas feed well into thoughts about windowless, sunken churches as havens for pain, shared by Bethany Tabor. However, I will leave at this for now, and of course if you’d like to help Ellie, you can do so here or here.

Spirituality of the Flesh