We are shaped by all we have suffered — by what harrows us — and in turn shape our lives by how we hold our harrowing. Harrow shares its Middle English root with harvest. It is by suffering, and by what we make of our suffering, that our personhood ripens in us, that we come to reap what evolution sowed long ago when mitochondria first set out to become mind — our capacity for empathy, for doubt, for art. Harrowing may be the hallmark of our humanity — an AI cannot be harrowed because it does not have hopes, only directives. This may be why John Steinbeck considered hope “the tragic miracle of consciousness” — miraculous because it violates the laws of probability to consecrate the possible, and tragic because it is constantly colliding with the will of the world, constantly devastated by the impartial brutality of time and chance. Harrowing is the price we pay for hope, for being fully human.And so, a poem:HARROWINGby Maggie SmithThis world is harrowing, harrowing,all harrow, as if harrow were whatthe world is made of, what we aremade of, as if harrow were stringsto be strummed, tendons and veinsto be strummed, as if harrowcould be snapped between the teeth,the word one letter from the white mealinside our bones, the meal we could makeof ourselves, harrow, two lettersfrom the bird who might strumwith its beak what the body is made of,what the world is made of, and in thatstrumming become the song.“Harrowing” comes from Maggie Smith’s benediction of a book Good Bones (public library). Couple it with Nick Cave on how to use your harrowing, then revisit Marcus Aurelius on turning your suffering into strength.donating = lovingFor seventeen years, I have been spending hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars each month composing The Marginalian (which bore the outgrown name Brain Pickings for its first fifteen years). It has remained free and ad-free and alive thanks to patronage from readers. I have no staff, no interns, no assistant — a thoroughly one-woman labor of love that is also my life and my livelihood. If this labor makes your own life more livable in any way, please consider lending a helping hand with a donation. Your support makes all the difference.newsletterThe Marginalian has a free weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week’s most inspiring reading. Here’s what to expect. Like? Sign up.