Setiya had chronic pain but no one knew what he really had

Pain represents one’s body in distress

Pain disrupts the transparency of the healthy body

Pain impedes one’s access to anything good

The temporality of pain transforms its character

Setiya is never aware of pain’s onset or relief

If you treat pain as a series of self-contained episodes, you can diminish its power

Pain is no more shareable over time

There is solace in solidarity, in sharing the experience of chronic pain, in compassion’s power to breach the boundaries that separate us from other people, and ourselves