Recently, somebody stabbed Salman Rushdie multiple times with a knife, an intentional act to hurt a specific person. Reading in the newspaper about this act brought up pain in me, I felt hurt by the content of that article.
However, this is about a different type of wounding, one from my past, of which the pain has been awakened by that text. That is in essence what words sometimes can do to us. When they hurt us, it are not the words themselves that hurt, but something that is brought up in us.
I have learned that liberation from pain starts with acknowledging the fact that we are touched by some words, and then to accurately name the part that is touched in us, and to explore it in detail. In a next stage, we can take the path of dealing with the underlying pain, certainly if that pain hinders us to fully realise our life potential.
Censoring words, texts or entire books, or attacking writers of words that offend us, never has freed anybody of any underlying pain, it only shackles others, and causes even more pain. Such acts do not bring us liberation, they can only (and temporarily) create an illusion that the pain is not there, because we avoid looking at it.
I reach out my hand to anybody who dares looking at their own vulnerability, because that is the true path to liberate us from pain. I have had the experience that there are many people who are then willing to receive us, and accompany us on the path to becoming more human and whole.