They Whom I Loved

The Wound

Job names a comprehensive loss here, all my inward friends, they whom I loved, worth holding as honest acknowledgment that wounds can come not from a single person but from an entire circle, community itself turning, worth naming directly if this describes your own experience, not merely one relationship but several.

This is worth examining against however much you have felt this compounded wound must somehow be exaggerated, since surely not everyone could genuinely turn at once, rather than Job’s own honest testimony, all, a comprehensive, genuinely painful loss, worth naming without minimizing its actual scope.

Notice they whom I loved, Job’s own love for these people named directly alongside their turning, worth holding as honest complexity, genuine love and genuine betrayal coexisting, not contradictory but both, honestly, simultaneously true, the way this whole book has been naming complicated, layered wounds.

Whatever comprehensive turning you have experienced, an entire circle rather than one person, name it today as honestly as Job named his own, all my inward friends, they whom I loved, without minimizing its actual, genuine scope simply because it feels too large to easily explain.