An Ode to Pain

At core, there are only two real truths. There is pleasure, and pain. Everything else may be stripped away, but pleasure and pain remain.

In a rigorous sense, our capacity to feel pleasure and pain is what connects us with all other living things — at least on the animal side of the divide. It is the basic source code of all animal cognition; the roots of the genetic family tree.

From the time of the very first nervous system, pain has served a stick and pleasure a carrot, guiding organic behavior towards genetic goals. In nature, pain is a constant thorn in the side of the endeavoring organism, forcing its hand at every turn.

It shouldn’t be too surprising, then, that the animal which has managed to emancipate itself from nature would prioritize a maximization of pleasure and a minimization of pain. We live in a world where physical pain, at least, has reached an all time low.

Tired of the thorn, we developed tweezers, got a good grip, and yanked the sucker out, discarding it happily in the bin of the antiquated.

And yet, as in most hasty coups, an imperfect understanding of the workings of the deposed government has resulted in unforeseen consequences. Pain, it turns out, is not truly severable from pleasure. They are yin and yang; two sides of the same coin of experience.

We may be able to eliminate pain in a superficial sense, but in doing so, we not only limit the bounds of pleasurable experience, but also grow a debt of pain that must, eventually, be settled. A life without pain is fiction… and implausible fiction, at that.

In the coming weeks I will explore how finding ways to strategically exercise pain is an essential task in building a life worth leading amongst the comfortable trappings of modern life. Follow along here, on substack, or on medium if you’re resolved to dealing with a pain in the butt.