On Wellingness

You can’t be weller than well; that treats health as an asset. The physician isn’t for the well, but the sick. Seeking to be weller than all the others, you keep it for yourself, like the Pharisee who kept all the commandments and thought his soul was well. The doctor diagnosed him: he was sick as.

Ignatius calls the welling up of tears a consolation. For what must we be consoled? For our weakness, frailty, helplessness in face of the devastations of this world. It happens without us. Sometimes we cause it; sometimes it is caused. Where is the earliest cause? The prime vice is greed, though the ancients thought envy the worst of the lot. As a child I didn’t understand what’s meant by coveting, or why forbid it, what’s it doing in the Decalogue? It underlies so many evils. Land, and its resources; family advancement and security; national supremacy; peace and stability; grace and beauty. All to be attained and enjoyed by me and not by thee. Wellness: the earthly paradise. Can you envy another’s peace? Oh, yes. Wellingness: the welling up of compassion, remorse, justice, redress. Even tears. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.