Boiling water — it softens the potato & hardens the egg. It’s not about the pain of being plunged into the boiling water, it’s about what is inside of us when we encounter suffering. Each person handles it in their own way, according to their own history. Sometimes it’s those others who couldn’t give a shit who have suffered most & thus have insulated themselves so well against the pain of others. Simply because they have no bandwidth left — they are barely managing their own pain. They are us as well. Scarred & flawed — no one escapes their humanity.