It was an unusual circumstance, but a few months ago, I did shmira for a baby. Shmira is the ritual safeguarding of a body from death to burial in Jewish tradition. A lot of cultures have this guarding of a body, and it goes back to the idea of protecting from robbers, rodents, and insects. Traditionally you would be in the room with the body, but in modern times, it's usually a room in the funeral home while the body is in the large refrigerator. However in Jewish custom, their soul is in the room with you, and the idea is you recite psalms, meditate, or even talk to them.
Anyway, this was the first time I did shmira for a baby, one that had been born and died in the same day. There's something in Jewish tradition that a child must live past 30 days to be considered "a viable human," but that again just doesn't fit in modern times, when grief is very real even over a child that wasn't born (and it was probably real back a thousand years ago too). So the parents requested the volunteer group I belong to, the Valley Chevra Kadisha, to sit shmira for the baby, whose name was Ari.
Somewhere in the two-hour shift I signed up for, an interesting thought occurred to me: this child only knew love. Yeah, he wasn't likely conscious of it, but these were my thoughts. The parents waiting for him to enter their lives, their request for shmira and a funeral, these were signs of love. The volunteers who signed up for the duration of his shmira over 48 hours, our coming for him was a sign of love for one lost, if not plain duty or respect. What would it be like to only know love?
Like he will never have people yell at him in anger, be sarcastic or mean to him. Of course we can get angry at people we love, or out of love not respond to a situation, so that the person may learn to handle it themselves, which may seem cold. But it's the kind of thing that made me wonder, is others' anger and abuse necessary for a "life well-lived?" Or could you live a full life without ever experiencing, for example, others' road rage, yelling at you for bad restaurant service, making fun of your appearance, and more? I know we need strife to make us strong, but what if it wasn't necessary?
I guess we could become like the people on Miranda in the movie Serenity, who just gave up living, because life was groovy. Or like the people in the human zoo in Steven Universe, who do have everything handed to them and are only nice to each other (there's a Star Trek episode like this too, but I can't remember which one). If we only knew love, and no one ever berated us, criticized us, or cried because of something we did... well, it reminds me of the Barbie movie too, another world of no conflict (at least for the Barbies, but no the Kens who are looked down on).
Why do we need conflict? If nothing else, it gives us something to talk about. The conflict could be as little as "I'm not good at chess; I want to be better." So coming back to this baby, that never got to live more than a day, I guess the answer is no, only knowing love is not such a good thing. If you can philosophize it differently, let me know in a comment. But I guess the only conclusion I can end with is, he did not get to live, and that is sad.
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