"Fix Three Broken Things"

In his post Fix Three Broken Things, David Cane writes about the “psychic injury” of having broken things in your life:

All broken things, no matter how easily they’re fixed, levy ongoing costs to well-being. They cause psychic injury every time you see or interact with them. The Buddha’s word for human angst or suffering was dukkha, referring to a wagon wheel that turned unevenly around its axle. The wagon still gets you from town to town, but the ride is grinding and bumpy.

Catherine’s art piece had been leaning against a wall in the print shop for more than a year, waiting to be cleaned up and moved. It was a glaring “broken thing” and, indeed, every time I opened the door to the print shop its presence there made my day a little more grinding and bumpy.

Reading Cain’s post was the straw that broke the camel’s back, as it raised the profile of the “psychic injury” relative to the perceived pain of actually fixing the broken thing. 

In the end, it took me about two hours from start to finish to prepare the art piece, call the Palliative Care Centre to get permission to drop it off, load it into the car, drive out to the Centre, unload it, and come home. Peanuts, relative to the daily grinding bumpiness.

Cain’s post finishes:

But the moment that thing gets fixed, the relief is surprisingly deep; you were bearing more pain than you knew. And so close to its end the whole time!

Exactly.