End side note

Side note: Nothing that is human is foreign to any of us, or at least it shouldn't be, and when we try to push it away we're pushing away something that is either us or our experience, or could be us or our experience. Our humanity.  Back in, I don't know, high school, I became convinced that the lowest common denominator for human beings is pain, which means it is the one place that we can all connect, if we allow ourselves (connecting with someone else in their pain because we have also experienced pain, even if it's different).  Which is why for years I could never tease anyone.  I am pretty convinced that if we don't connect from this place, we will fail to know people (including ourselves and God) in meaningful ways.  Also, if people or God fail to connect with us in this way, they'll lose out on us.  Which is what's beautiful to me about the cross and the incarnation.  You have to go to the grave with them to enter into the joy of the resurrection- his and ours.  Pain is also a place of extreme vulnerability for all involved, and can be inappropriately entered, damaging to the one or the other, or both.  I am so thankful that you reminded me of all of this.  "Lessons" that I have learned don't mean much when I forget. End side note.