A personal note to Perilous Times subscribers and some observations on human suffering

I very much value subscribers to Perilous Times who willingly receive, think about, and provide me with feedback on my commentary on vital issues of our troubled world. That is why I am writing to apologize for my failure to explain the prolonged absence of Perilous Times in your in-box lately, especially since our times have become even more perilous after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s subsequent reprisal on Hamas.

Since early September, I have been grappling with a recurrence of a medical condition from eight years ago that required surgery on October 10. The procedure was by all accounts successful but will require weeks of recovery and then some more treatments starting later next month.  It may be a while before I am able to consistently produce installments of Perilous Times, but I do promise that I will get back to it as soon as I can. 

In the meantime, I want to share with you two thoughts that have been crossing my mind during my personal ordeal that I think provide good lenses to think about what is happening in Israel and Gaza right now. 

The first is about how unequal the distribution of human suffering is our society.  When I learned about the surgery I would need and how difficult the recovery would be, I thought about this a lot.  Naturally, I felt sorry for myself and scared at what I would have to face.  But I also thought about how for 60 years, I had led a charmed existence. I have not suffered from bad health, a devastating loss of a loved one, or economic deprivation of any sort.  How many of the world’s 8 billion people could claim a run like that for six decades?  Once I saw my situation as simply my turn to suffer as almost everyone in the world has suffered at some time or another, it became easier to accept the fate that had befallen me. 

The second, closely related point, is that the means to endure suffering -- let’s call it “resiliency” -- is also grossly unequally distributed. I may be experiencing pain and discomfort, but I had my surgery in a world class medical facility and am able to take a medical leave without having to worry about losing my job (and the health care insurance that comes with it). I have a spouse who can take time off to provide (amazing) personal care for me and a comfortable home in which to recover. I have a network of colleagues, family, and friends there to provide whatever aid, assistance and support is needed. I cannot fathom how difficult it would be for someone to experience the same level of pain and discomfort that I have experienced without these means of support.  Yet, people do it every day. This is human suffering compounded exponentially. 

I am thinking about the monumental disaster in Israel and Gaza in these terms.

Suffering on the Israeli side is acute. Savage deaths, beatings, rape, kidnappings – a catalogue of human horrors. An entire nation traumatized by the pain and suffering they know the hostages are undergoing every minute of their captivity. Every citizen has also experienced the sudden, brutal loss of a sense of physical and psychological security. That is a lot of human suffering.

And on the Palestinian side – 2 million people without water, electricity, and fuel. Hospitals without medicine and anesthesia. Daily aerial bombardments aimed at militants, but inevitably causing death and destruction to innocents as well.  Pain is the commodity of human suffering.  Can one even imagine what it might feel like to have a limb crushed by collapsing concrete and then have no access to pain killers, corrective surgery, or even a glass of water? I can’t, especially after 8 days in the hospital when a nurse responded every time I hit the button on my bed.

Trying to think about ways to reduce the suffering on both sides will be my guidepost as I think through this morass.

Hopefully, dear readers, I will return soon to providing my thoughts to you.

Thanks for sticking with me.