Art and Pain
In a neutral room, poorly lit with a flicker of sunlight poking through the oversized under dressed window. The evening rain settles to a fine mist, almost refreshing. I look down to my steaming mug of tea and try to not feel neutral and dim. I am surrounded by influences but which one wins? Scanning the room for inspiration, I see the many objects of significance. What I really want to write about is, pain.
It’s a powerful tool in the medical world, defining pain can be very telling of one’s internal problems. Every now and again, pain is used as a great comparison and gauge for daily choices (usually to avert one from being on the receiving end of it). Coupled with a word like terrible or unbearable it is an experience everyone has but can easily forget -depending on the situation. From my experience, non-physical pain is the worst. It can -and usually does, manifest years later in an unrelated situation and once identified can be the source of growth and learning. I don’t want to speak only for or about myself but have a broader idea of what pain is to humans. We experience physical pain during child labor, death, injury, laughter and loss. It is so important to understand pain for what it is, a system to of self teaching. What person burns themselves once and goes back for more? Surely no healthy person would, yet, there are so many adults who raise children who are so fearful and shielded from pain that upon entering adulthood these persons lack the coping and adversity skills to understand the meaning behind the pain. What do you think of a person who can’t describe pain?
My father is a minister. As I grew up, I attended more funerals than weddings or baptisms. Having had watched family after family grieve, I slowly began to understand that life is a cyclical process and we can experience a wide spectrum of emotions, once we pull the blinders off. Open yourself to experience and life because the pain is what teaches and the joy is what we savor.
Art can prove to be an effective catharsis for pain.
