Large Fierce Mammal

Is this where you’re headed?

What does comfort mean to you? Never having to worry about money? A warm safe place to sleep? Somebody to look after you should you become sick or injured? A bed that’s not too soft, not too hard, but just right? What about the median thermal content of the porridge?

Those are all very comforting things but they share a vulnerability in common — each comes from external sources and consist of subjectively visualized ideals with no universality of definition. You can’t order them like pizza, and even if you could, as with wishes from the denizens of lamps, what you get won’t likely match expectations.

“Everything I spoke to there was about position which is the state you’ll be in when something happens that affects you, and this can be anything from life threatening; lost in a blizzard for example; to delightful; as in that first date with the one of your dreams. Career changing, perhaps in the form of a promotion bringing with it a raise in salary but with the requirement to relocate to another province or state; perhaps another country.

“The question is, put to the test and on demand, what can you bring to the party, and will it be the best of yourself?

“From these examples you can see that position can affect opportunity, but in the gravest extreme — the life threatening example — the question can be posed in the form of an unexpected pop quiz where wrong is the same as dead.” ~ A Long Winter’s Night — 2020 Edition Day 2: Position

Position can be born into. It can also be affected by dumb luck, but is most often an outcome of habits.

When it comes to real, durable comfort, let’s not forget the ultimate yardstick — what’s your level of tolerance for DIScomfort?

No kidding.

With all that in mind, I’m going to cap off tonight’s Dark Sentiment by handing over the Talking Stick to the Esteemed Jim Keating for some well taken words about suffering, because Goode Reader, if you can’t do that with style, you can’t do shit. Take it away Jim, until next time.