I think a lot about how the historical near-constant physical discomforts must have affected both sanity and emotional resilience
my own experiences with chronic pain have indubitably deeply shaped the way I think, & I live in relative luxury, compared to mostly every human ever
I wonder what it must have been like to live in an earlier era, what the physical state of the typical person was, how distracted by pain and discomfort they were
and then am in awe of what they accomplished in spite of all that
ofc, it's possible they didn't notice it at all
if you've never known a better way to be, it's easy to not be aware of the suffering you're feeling; we're quite pampered nowadays, when it comes to physical comforts, & often don't even appreciate the things we take for granted
could the medievals imagine how good we have it?
we often mock the ridiculously superstitious beliefs people used to hold, poking holes in their contradictions and incompatibilities with reality
but do we take into account how the mind of a person in everpresent distress is inevitably warped around it to be able to function?
realizing this made me stop mocking stupid poor people; punching down just doesn't feel right when you really think about what the life of someone in poverty is like
medieval minds can still be found in the poorest corners of our civilization
and many of them are on here too
