Juneflower - Quod me nutrit, me destruit

What nourishes me destroys me – solely my ramblings on this Latin expression.

Analysing this as a statement of fact, in a superficial sense every situation has pros and cons to it. For instance, you are in a job that you detest for every reason other than the money it brings with it. You can use the money to nourish (obviously) yourself and your family, pay off your debts and ensure security with a rather low risk source of income. But the job by itself does not give you a sense of fulfilment – it destroys your deeper aspirations slowly but surely. Two sides of the same coin, so to say.

At a deeper level, a slightly altered version of this slogan can be expressed as a question - What if that which nourishes me ultimately destroys me? A few lines from one of the most intense songs in the history of Hindi cinema ‘Chingaari koi bhadke to saawan use bujhaaye, saawan jo aag lagaagye use kaun bujhaaye’ (If there is a spark, the rain would extinguish it – but what if the rain itself causes a fire – who will douse it?) nicely sums it up. What better example than love itself? You run after love thinking it is a source of everlasting happiness. But what if love itself becomes the cause for eternal despair? Who will rescue you from the clutches of misery then?

Now for a moment view this idiom as a cheery toned exclamation. What nourishes me destroys me! If you perform an extraordinary action, you do suffer some temporary ill effects of it. But you are contented nevertheless because you did something creative, bold, whimsical, wild, out of the world. For instance: Dancing in the rain on a cold wintry night got me a little flu. But my only reaction was ‘Who cares!’ In this case pleasure overpowered the subsequent pain and is more long lived as a sweet memory. The pain is also cherished, in fact, as it acts like a testimony to the wildness of the action!

I believe Angelina Jolie has this phrase tattooed below her navel – I’m tempted to ask her what she was thinking!