Pain

Myself: My best teacher and the worst suffering!

I: Exactly! There is no learning without pain. Actually, you can learn without pain, but you should have gone down a painful path in the past. After you come to realize some of the basics, it becomes easier, and there is no need for pain that you cannot endure.

Myself: Yep, I have been there. Pain is my companion. I know it.

I: I am aware that sometimes it was so hard that your brain couldn’t accept it. I know that. But eventually you came to a space where you no longer said: “I have pain, God.” You looked at the pain and said: “I have God, pain!” Now you are there. When you look back from this vantage point, what do you feel?

Myself: I feel no regret. I feel that’s exactly what I needed. I needed the very same parents, the same country, the same siblings, the same experience. If I were to be born again, I would live exactly the same life.

I: So, on this note, let me tell you a story. A story of a girl who had no choice but to make it.

Myself: She lived in a distant country some people even don’t know exists. She lived in the mountains and could breathe the fresh mountain air every day. Her body could feel the early morning rays, and she could look at the same and say “good morning,” because the morning was good.

But it was not always like that. There were times when she would crawl from her bed after sleepless nights and regret that a new day started. There were days when the world – the enemy world – would tease her innocence and give gifts that she did not ask for. There were days when the only thing she wished for was death.

So, how did it change? What happened?

The secret was crucifixion. She went down the path of crucifixion. Everything welling up inside her, from beliefs to sensations, was crucified. She was executed by her own people – alive. Could she die? I guess not, lol. Her angels were always with her even when she felt no assistance whatsoever.

And I am telling a story that lasted twenty long years. Twenty long years of crucifixion ended in a space of relative freedom where she could breathe the mountain air again and say “good morning” to the sun, because the morning was, in fact, “good.”

Julie turned the pages of her diary and found a story about one of the hallucinations. It was titled “The Planet of Pleasure,” a planet that she dreamed about when she was sick. Here is an excerpt from her notes.

The Planet of Pleasure

Planet Earth….The 5th millennium… Armenia… She woke up in bed and stretched her arms. A smile on her face. She didn’t care what she would be doing that day. She knew that the day was going to bring her all the wonders that she had dreamed about.

Slowly she crawled out of bed. The floor was cold, and she felt the freezing cold shoot up her body. She took a hot shower. She stood under the water for a long time. The water was flowing over her body and giving her the pleasure of warmth and security. She did not want to get out of the shower as she was enjoying the moment under the hot water, and her whole body was relaxing. Then she poured some cold water on herself and jumped quickly back to the hot shower. She repeated this 7 times. Her whole body was red and trembling with pleasure.

Julie was one of the inhabitants of planet Earth in the 5th millennium. It was a world where dreams were coming true immediately. It was a world of security, pleasure, self-satisfaction and delight. The inhabitants of this planet possessed the amazing skill of being able to make their own world by virtue of thought. Everybody created their own world with the power of their mind. Thoughts could materialize.

This was a planet of freedom and security. Everybody knew that they could not encroach on the world of others, as this would mean disturbing their own privacy and pleasure. The inhabitants of this world did not interfere in each other’s worlds, not because they were kind. Kindness was not a virtue in this world. They were egoistic. They knew that if they interfered in another’s world, they would ruin their own privacy. They did not interfere because they were egoistic. They did not want to lose the security and beauty of their own world.

Julie closed her diary and went to bed.

Transadaptation Volume 4 – Material Dissent

January: A Blinding Light and Then, All Darkness – Jonay Quintero Hernández (Spain)

February: The Opportunist – Lauren Voaden (United Kingdom)

March: A Stranger in my City – Alejandra Baccino (Uruguay)

April: A South African Soundtrack – Sarah-Leah Pimentel (South Africa)

May: Full Circle – Ina Maria Vogel (Germany)

June: La Lluvia en Bogotá – Adriana Uribe (Columbia)

July: Freedom – Krisztina Janosi (Hungary)

August: A Bus Ride – Svetlana Molchanova (Russia)

September: Transcendence – Armine Asryan (Nane Sevunts) (Armenia)

October: Motherhood – Marilin Guerrero Casas (Cuba)

November: Nine Days – Gennady Bondarenko (Ukraine)

December: Open – Seyit Ali Dastan (Turkey)

Background – Context

Transadaptation Volume 3: Evanescent – Young Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2022)

Transadaptation Volume 2: Conceived – Childhood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2021)

Transadaptation Volume 1: In the Middle – Prelude to a Contemporary Transadaptation, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2020)

Peripatetic Alterity: A Philosophical Treatise on the Spectrum of Being – Romantics and Pragmatists by Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)

La Syncrétion of Polarization and Extremes Transposée, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)

The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2018)

L’anthologie of Global Instability Transpuesta, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2017)

From Wahnsinnig to the Loony Bin: German and Russian Stories Transposed to Modern-day America, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2013)

Emblems and stories on the international community

Perception by country – Transposing emblems, articles, short stories and reports from around the world

Credits (left side, middle – top to bottom, right side)

1. Syunik, Armenia – The cliffs – Ani Adigyozalyan (Unsplash), 2. Tatev, Armenia – Tatev Monastery – Anie Arstamyan (Unsplash), 3. Syunik, Armenia – In the mountains – Ani Adigyozalyan (Unsplash), 4. Tavush, Armenia – Transcendence – Karine Avetisyan (Unsplash), 5. Lori, Armenia – Mountain grazing – Aram Grigoryan (Unsplash), 6. Armenia – Gora Arailer – Aram Grigoryan (Unsplash), 7. Goris, Armenia – Ephemeral – Mushegh Hakobyan (Unsplash), 8. Armenia – Monastery Valley – Ivars Utinans (Unsplash)
Source: The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed