This morning, at my regular coffee place, a middle-aged woman fell to the ground and began writhing and groaning in pain. The cries she emitted for at least the next half hour were heartbreaking, and, at times, terrifying.
To be in the presence of so much pain is overwhelming. If you can ignore the temptation to turn away, it can shake you to your core, and inspire a mix of humility and gratitude. If you allow it to, it can wipe your mind of petty gripes. There but for the grace of God …
I’m pretty sure that nobody present asked what the poor woman had done or said to deserve such pain. No one got up to leave. We all seemed to be waiting with her for the ambulance to arrive. No one was thinking what they had in common with her, what she believed in, what she did for a living, or whether she or whatever group she associated with had harmed anyone else. All we knew was that she was a human in great pain. And her suffering was causing the friends she had been sitting with another type of pain.
I’m pretty sure everyone at the café wished for her to find relief, consolation, peace. Once you’ve decided not to look away, it’s hard to see fellow humans in great pain, unless, of course, you’ve convinced yourself that that those humans and their loved ones deserve such pain.
But to do that, you’d first have to embrace a rationale that gives you permission not to feel compassion in the face of human suffering. And to not feel compassion in the face of human suffering is literally the definition of being inhumane.
