"It is folly to expect a wounded mind to diagnose itself...." I read this in the paper today, a condemnation of the lack of treatment given a marine Iraq war vet who committed DUI manslaughter. The guy had a history of blackout drinking along with three purple hearts and a mind full of nightmares. I recall in the midst of my own lost youth how I questioned my own perception and wondered, how does a sick mind living within the confines of a distorted reality know that it is sick? Extrapolated further, how does the bulk of humanity living today in limited, conditional ignorance free itself from imprisonment of which it is not even aware? And so most of us continue on in a life of restlessness and discontent bounded by the poles of fear and desire, ever seeking surcease in the transient, futilely. It's what we know. It is confirmed by those around us, although they too wander lost without knowing so. I understand now why most of the great ones lived in an agony of compassion.
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