Salt, Wounds, and the Most Unkindest Cuts of All

Put your finger on a table. And, let me take a box of salt and pour the salt all over your finger. A lot of salt. So much salt, that your finger is buried in salt. Now, if your finger is completely healthy, you will simply brush off the salt.

Now, let us say you have an open wound in your finger. Then, I take that same salt, exactly the same amount of salt, and I pour it all over your finger.

Now that salt burns, it hurts. And for feeling that burn, perhaps we yell, scream, and perhaps we seek vengeance, one way or another.

Therefore, we observe that it’s not just about the acting agent, it’s also about the thing acted upon, and judging the reaction. Any doctor or scientist of the chemistry of nature will confirm this framework of assessment. With a wound, reaction; without a wound, no reaction.

The World is full of grains of acting agents of cause, such as the salt, and those agents are plentiful, covering all of us. However, whether something burns us, is as much evidence of our wounds. Whether it corrodes us, is as much evidence of our composition and constitution. And, whether anything cuts or injures us at all in the first place, is as much evidence of our personal strength, our tools, and our armor.

Thus, the adage, “Quod nos laedit et corrodit infirmitates nostras detegit.” (“That which injures and corrodes us reveals our weaknesses.”)

But, there is one thing we know or should know, as it is as much a rule of society as it is in basic nature:

The things that can cut us will keep coming, the things that threaten us will keep coming—one way or another—the abrasions and the salt are going to keep coming, and coming, one way or another, from one thing or another.

If not this thing, then that thing.

The greater body of society is merely a collection and composition of the individual bodies of that society. The constitution of the society is as strong as the collective constitution of its individual people. And, the resultant health of the society is a function of the health of the individuals who make up that society; that is, how injured are those individuals, or how wounded.

“Multum vulnus, multum motus.” (“Much wound, much reaction.”)

Yes, there are certain acting agents that are so powerful as universally to pierce the best skin, and even to wound through the best prepared defensive armor, and so they should be wisely judged as such and corrected. But not everything is such.

As political and social scientists, of sorts, we judge the health of our society—such as a scientist in judging any body or condition—by assessing social causes relative to social reactions, knowing that the weaker our body, the more things that will injure it. “Quo infirmior corpus est, hoc magis iniuriae.” (“The weaker the body, the more injuries.”)

And, if we should find, as adult scientists, that if everything cuts and burns us, we should deduce that it is no longer a matter of the acting agents, but a matter of ourselves as the things acted upon.

Too easily wounded, too tender a body. Too much burn, too many wounds. Our injuries betray us.

We already know that wounds heal not from the outside, but wounds heal from the inside. As for the salt, it will just keep coming, one way or another.

Of things, some are in our power, and others not. Remember, then, if you mistake the things which are in the power of others to be in your power, you will be hindered, you will lament, you will be disturbed, and you will blame both gods and men.

The thing that matters is not what you bear, but how you bear it. The strong person is inside more powerful than the world outside. I do not say that a good person does not feel the assaults of adversity, but conquers them, and on occasion calmly and tranquilly rises superior to their attacks, holding all misfortunes to be trials of his or her own firmness.

The tender neck chafes at the yoke.

Epictetus, Enchiridion [1]; Seneca, On Providence [2, 3]


[1] Epictetus. On the Tranquil Flow of Life. – Abridgment Series [#GRZ_17]

[2] Seneca. On the Misfortune of Good Men. Abridgment Series [#GRZ_18]

[3] Whom the Gods Would Destroy, They First Tease with Political Incorrectness [#GRZ_74]

“Quod nos laedit et corrodit infirmitates nostras detegit.” (“That which injures and corrodes us reveals our weaknesses.”); “Multum vulnus, multum motus.” (“Much wound, much reaction.”); “Quo infirmior corpus est, hoc magis iniuriae.” (“The weaker the body, the more injuries.”); “Facile vulneratur, nimis tenerum corpus est.” (“Too easily wounded, too tender a body.”); “Nimium urere, nimium vulnera multa.” (“Too many burns, too many wounds.”); “Narrat expressio.” (“Telling tells.”); “Iniuriae nostrae produnt.” (“Our injuries betray us.”); “Contumeliae nostrae produnt.” (“Our insults betray us.”) ~ grz


© 2018 Gregg Zegarelli, Esq. Gregg can be contacted through LinkedIn.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/salt-wounds-most-unkindest-cuts-all-gregg-zegarelli-esq-

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