pain as friend

The heart in me lives for the pain you cause.

The world is foreign, only pain's a friend,

Who does this heart a favor just to come

Into a heart too wrung to offer room.

#327: From Rumi's Kolliyaat-e Shams-e Tabrizi

Search word: pain

The pain of torture has been demanding my attention of late. I am haunted by the story of the torture and murder of Ilan Halimi, a Parisian Jew, at the hands of a predominantly Muslim gang. It is being seen, naturally enough, as the latest incident in a looming war between Judaism and political Islam. It could be said that the war began 14 centuries ago when Mohammad dealt brutally with the Banu Qurayza Jews of Medina, killing all the men and taking the women and children as slaves. It could be said that the war started only in 1948 with the creation of the state of Israel. I'm inclined to the view that the deeper roots are the truer ones.

In researching circumcision, I've come across a website, book and theory titled "Saharasia", by James DeMeo. He has analyzed cultures for warlike tendencies and identified a geographical area, linked to a desert climate, where such cultures arose and predominate. It's an interesting and plausible overview despite its risks of being a tad simplistic.

World map of patrist/matrist culture @ orgonelab.org

Rumi, in today's quatrain, seems to be suffering still through the grief he felt over the loss of Shams. He seems to welcome the pain of that loss as a stand-in for his friend. As I've followed his poetry, I've come to see and to experience myself how such pain can lead eventually to an accepting joy in the face of life. I hope that such a joy will also come, in the fullness of time, to those grieving parents. In the meantime, my heart is with them.