We call it world-pain– weltschmerz– the chronic disease of the pure idealist, the invisible illness of the undiluted skeptic.
It is a sickness of panic and rage, inflamed when the world isn’t working as it ought.
When a child starves, when a species dies, when a lie spreads…
the world aches, and the infected amongst us grieve with it in interwoven companionship.
Don’t hide from the pain. At its core is an all-healing anti-virus, a quiet spark that burns helplessness like coal and brings light to a lost maxim of hope:
The world deserves better. Let’s give it our best.
* Picture from The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein
Are you infected with world-pain?
