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Consider Pain
- Northwestern University Press
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61 CONSIDER PAIN Whether to greet it, treat it, as foe or friend, reliable and steadfast? Foe, the tempting choice, means warfare, wreckage, the blasted terrain, seizure in the night, a poison of ill will flooding the veins. Friend might be more canny. Permit a short-term stay, get acquainted with its habits, humors. Still, offering pain too wide a berth could be perverse, inviting a clinging friend who overstays his welcome. So maybe foe’s the braver course, an all-out battle, with a battle’s risk. Pain might become an occupying force imposing its restrictions, seeking to snap the frayed will, destroying infrastructure, customs of a lifetime. Then reconsider friend. Feigning friendship, you may fool a pain into submission. No, fuck all subtle strategies. Pain is your foe. Defy. Fight back. Friend, foe, foe, friend? All the while I waver it works its way, burrowing, unweaving the delicate webs . . . ...