Say Something Helpful - Poetic lament over logic and suffering

Actually written APRIL 22, 2017

I wanted to say something helpful about suffering, but the foundations of reason and logic are on fire.

You are in misery. But I cannot speak without contradicting myself into meaninglessness.

I cannot make plans to relieve your pain.

I cannot think. I cannot even grasp that you are in misery.

I … I … I …

Ughathmum tidul verouldup.

Grushtamblis hoodungus vemuus.

The foundation of reason is the axiom of logic: A is A.

It’s corollary, when more than one thing exists, is A is not B. A is one thing. B is another. A and B are different.

A and B are metaphysically adjacent. There is no gap between them. Existence has no gaps. There is no such thing as a gap in existence comprised of nothing.

But what is the metaphysical distance between A and B? [See also the “problem of metaphysical adjacency”.]

It cannot be zero. For that would mean that A and B were the same, not different, and violate the corollary of logic’s foundation. And this is impossible.

But neither can it be non-zero. For any non-zero would be a gap in existence. And this is impossible.

But neither can it be infinitely small. Infinitely dividing that distance in half is infinite regress. It has no quantity, no identity, no existence. And this is impossible.

The foundations of logic destroy Logic.

My logic about your suffering is impossible. 

I cannot reason about how to relieve your suffering.

And I am crying out my compassion in self-contradicting, meaningless statements of I wish I could help. But I am also not doing that.

I wanted to say something helpful about suffering, but the foundations of reason and logic are on fire. But they are also not on fire.

Waaga hodustim egulfid ban woutled cages.

And Zeno is about to die in a burning building, but I can’t pass through the infinity of mutually metaphysically adjacent different things that exist between him and myself to save him. But I also can save him. And it seems that logic has nothing to do with any of it.

< Previous Episto-Compassion writing

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