My arm hurts.
Who cares, right? (Actually, Slopers are a gentle-spirited lot, and the last time I mentioned this, I received a heartwarming amount of personal attention and counsel). I only mention this to offer up a small point that’s been bouncing around my tapioca-filled head.
As I’ve stated in the past, my disposition toward my health has two states: either I am immortal, or else all life is about to end. The latter appears in instances in which I am experiencing any kind of pain whatever.
Over a period of two or three weeks, I’ve had pains in my left arm and the left side of my back. The pains have been diminishing a tiny bit every day, and today I actually feel closer to normal than I’ve been for a long time.
None of this came about by injury or shock. It just…………….happened. And the only reason I mention it is to share a thought that had crossed my mind, which is that if I were to help create the design for the thing known as a Human Being, I would put them in mild pain for an indeterminate amount of time and an unknown period each and every week.
Sometimes it would be five minutes. Other times it might be a full hour. Sometimes it would only slightly perceptible. Other times it would be very uncomfortable. None of it would be debilitating, but none of it could be ignored.
Why? Am I a sadist? No, far from it. Quite the opposite. It merely occurs to me that having an ailment from time to time creates empathy. It reminds oneself of mortality. It compels one to ponder the worse plight of others and to reflect upon the strength that others exhibit when they endure so much worse. In short, it’s good for the soul.
I could use that more often than I’d like to admit. I’m glad that I’m almost better, but the unfortunate fact is that, once I’m 100% again, I’ll be my same old immortal, there’s-no-such-thing as pain self. I think I’d be better off if I knew that, each and every week, I was going to get a reminder, and there was nothing I could do about it.
We all fall back to sleep far too easily..
