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Pain’s Exit Door

Shannon Goertz

Updated: Aug 11, 2024

Doors out of suffering…. Dr. Jordan Peterson said, “the way I see it, you should lead a life so full of meaning that suffering becomes a irrelevant.” "Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. (This story is told by Ira Byock, an authority on palliative medicine, in his book The Best Care Possible: A Physician’s Quest to Transform Care Through the End of Life (Avery, 2012). In many ways the book can be understood as an extended commentary on the famous aphorism in medicine: “To cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always.”) The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.

But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.

A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said.

“We are at our best when we serve others."

My spiritual advisor is constantly saying “serve others” & “feed everyone”.


🚪 …… that is one of the doors out of your suffering. The choices now yours.

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