Self Portrait With Amo Box

Pain is a strange thing. As a child the physical pain of a skinned knee, is as bad as it gets. As and adult a skinned knee is hardly noticed; nothing compared to the other rips and breaks of growing up.

Emotional pain isn’t superseded but accumulated. The pain of kids calling you names in second grade is packed away inside. When, as an adult, a poison pen letter, carefully crafted and sent with your name on top, is opened that pain mixes with the old similar hurts. Damage from the name calling kids has seeped up from within. This isn’t pleasant but perhaps its a tool through which we can learn empathy.  nancymauerman.com