Hunger and Pain

Tomorrow my sister is having knee replacement surgery. While knee surgery does not seem to me to be as drastic as some other types, it is in fact fairly invasive and her recovery will be lengthy. But if all goes according to plan, the treatment she has chosen will relieve her of the pain she has endured for some time.

We like to be relieved of pain! That is good and natural (to seek pain is an indication that something is fundamentally disordered). Of course, our culture has taken pain avoidance to great heights. We run to the medicine cabinet at the slightest twinge. "Never have pain" is almost as much of a cultural mantra as "never be hungry!"

I titled this blog "be hungry" in part to proclaim that hunger is a good thing, a necessary thing. I am referring to spiritual hunger, but the idea originated in my observations about our cultural obsession with food. Most so-called diet "plans" declare that if you follow their regimen you will "never be hungry." As someone who has to be vigilant about food - if I don't want to gain weight - I learned long ago that the only way to stay at a healthy weight is to be willing to be hungry sometimes. Being hungry is a sign that I am actually in charge of what I eat, not driven by my impulses, not eating out of boredom or anxiety.

I think that sometimes we are in so much of a hurry to avoid pain - emotional as well as physical - that we miss what it has to teach us. I am not saying "don't take the ibuprofen!" But I am thinking about the headache or heartache that does not abate right away. Maybe (and I am being tentative here because these things are difficult to express) it is an opportunity to be softened; to go "on a diet," if you will, from our obsession with personal comfort, and to let the difficulty teach us how to share in the suffering of others.