FRIENDS,
You’ve heard this joke making the rounds:
“Look at Zarathustra! Walking around, among us as if among animals?”

But said better: “The discerning one walks among men
as among animals.”

Man himself is to the discerning one:
the animal with red cheeks.
How has that happened to him?
Isn’t it because he has felt
ashamed too often?

O my friends!
Thus speaks the discerning one:
shame, shame, shame –
that is the history of man!

And on that account does the noble one
purpose himself not to cause shame:
he obligates himself to reticence
in presence of all sufferers.

Truly, I do not like them,
the merciful ones,
whose happiness is when they feel pity:
they are depleted of reticence.

If I must be pitied,
I dislike to be labeled as such;
and if I be so,
it is preferably
out of ear-shot.

Preferably also do I conceal my identity,
and run away, before being recognized:
and this I recommend,
to you my friends!

May my destiny
ever lead unashamed ones
like you across my path,
and those with whom I may have
hope and refreshment and honey in common!

Yes, I have done this and that
for the beaten down:
upon reflection though
what seemed to benefit most
–the times when I learned to enjoy myself better.

Since humanity came into being,
man has enjoyed himself too little:

that alone, brothers,
is our original sin!

And when we learn better
to enjoy ourselves,
thus to reprogram ourselves
to not give pain to others,
and to contrive pain.

Be on guard against pity:
from pity still comes to humankind
a dark and heavy cloud!

Truly, I understand weather-signs!
But attend also to this word:

All great love is above feeling pity:
because great love seeks
— to create what is loved!

Thus Spake Zarathustra, by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by Thomas Common, The Pitiful, Part 2, No. 3

Surprise and delight came when as I read this passage. Full disclosure: I exercised a writer’s freedom to smooth out the translated text for ease of readability.

By shear coincidence this afternoon I will participate in a discussion about addiction, a medical term for what we used to call ‘bad habits’. This discussion will explore what Plato said about habits, and whether this squares with what we know about addiction. Who among us has not wrestled with persistent negative behaviors, or thinking? There’s an excellent chance that “shame” whether felt secretly, or a matter of being labeled in public, was attached to such habits.

The soliloquy, when Nietzsche/Zarathustra unburdens his thoughts to his friends and followers is precisely about the prevalence of shame. How wide-spread, nearly universal shame and being shamed happen to be!

As you read you will notice these points:

• Homo sapiens, the ‘wise human’ ironically has ruddy-cheeks due to shame.
• Triggering others to feel shameful ought to be avoided.
• Advice: Hang out with those who do not cause you shame.
• Learn-to-have-fun is a Rx for shame, an antidote, a treatment!
• Seek what you love in yourself and in others.

Enjoy!