Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Pain. What On Earth's It Good For?


It was another gorgeous day here today, absolutely clear-blue and cold this morning. I have to admit that I am getting over the romance of heating with gas log fires for the simple reason that they are not getting the job done as to my specifications. I am wondering if my husband is going to research units until it's too warm to worry about it. For another year, of course.
I really don't think that's his plan but I can see it happening. Knowing him as I do I wonder at the fact that he asked me to marry him as quickly after we got together as he did. 
"Act in haste, regret in leisure" is his motto, if he does have one.
I hope he hasn't been regretting in leisure for the past 35 years.

Anyway, nothing like a walk to warm a soul up and I took one. I came home and did some housewifey stuff and ate my lunch and read an article in the New Yorker.  (Link)


It sort of blew my mind. We've all heard of people who can't feel physical pain, which is definitely not a good thing in that the people who have this difference do things like cut themselves, burn themselves, break bones, drink scalding liquids, etc., etc., much to their detriment.
And the woman in this article does not feel pain. She can feel pressure but not pain but she's managed to live a fairly normal life and has raised two children so she's okay there. But the thing that really interests scientists and was so fascinating to me is that she doesn't really feel emotional pain either. She can feel concern and she can feel distress or a sense of urgency in an emergency but for the most part, she does not have the flight-or-fight reaction to situations that most of us still experience even though in our world, our lives, they are no longer appropriate for the most part and can cause us actual physical harm. This is not to say that she couldn't logically figure out that she's in danger and do something about it. She very much could and has. It's just that her blood pressure doesn't shoot up and her body flood with adrenalin if she gets stuck in traffic.
And according to all who know her and have met her, she's gregarious, caring, and just a damn nice person.
There was so much to this article. It starts out with the way we view pain as something which makes us stronger and more empathetic and which has purpose and meaning in the lives of humans, but it ends up making us wonder if that's just bullshit.
Which I've always believed. "God never gives us more than we can bear," for example. In truth, humans are often given more than we can bear and it doesn't actually make us better people. Sometimes it kills us.
Anyway, it was a fascinating article and in studying her, scientists and doctors may learn a great deal about pain and how to control it in completely different ways than we've been going at it. Could this also lead to help for people who suffer emotional pain?
I think it may. I've already thought about it in relation to things that have arisen in my day which were causing me to stress out and it's given me a different perspective.
Anyway, read it if you get the chance.

I drove to Monticello to return some library books and it was nice to see Mr. Terez. I've become his friend on Facebook and that's given me a whole other community to learn about. He's such a nice guy. He came over to me as I was perusing books and gave me a hug. He gives the politest hugs in the world but you can still feel the sweetness. I love watching the way he treats everyone in the library with respect and friendliness. While I was there I found and checked out this book.


If you've never read any of Alexandra Fuller's books, it might be time to remedy that situation. Her first book, Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight is devastatingly hard and sad and wonderful and beautiful. I'll just leave it at that. 

I finished Maggie's dress this evening. Well, except for any fancifying I might want to do. It went easy and I think it's pretty. 


It's actually a variation of the pattern of the nightgown I made her. I hope she likes it. 

Mr. Moon is at a basketball game of Owen's and then he's going to watch the FSU basketball game which is an away game on TV with friends at a little pub-like place so I'm on my own tonight. I'm going to heat up some leftovers and maybe do a little embroidering on the dress. It's going to be cold again tonight and then we should see some warmer temperatures. And I'll probably be bitching about that. 
I'll try not to. 

Love...Ms. Moon



26 comments:

  1. That little dress looks lovely as it is. I'm glad you had a good day. I'm interested in that article because I've dealt with chronic pain for years without drugs or any self-medicating. Massage seems to help in my case. Thanks for sharing about it here.

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    1. Not sure that the article would help you at all but the research they're doing may eventually. I'm glad that massage helps you. Chronic pain is not something I'd wish on anyone.

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  2. That is a beautiful piece of fabric and a beautiful dress. Miss Maggie is a lucky little woman.
    I've read about not feeling pain. I could use a little of that. Ha. Won't happen.

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    1. It is pretty material, isn't it? I think I bought the end of the bolt when I got it.
      Yeah, if we could only dial back pain a little bit. Wait- isn't that what marijuana is supposed to do? I need to give that another try.

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  3. Dear Mrs. Moon

    I cried silent tears last night for hours and hours. I sat listening to the police scanner, and replaying what was on the news about Iraq. My eyes literally just poured soaking my beard, in turn soaking my shirt collar. Whew then apparently I cried in my sleep as I woke several.several times to switch out pillows.
    I tried explaining how I walked into my cousins house and saw the news. I also saw my cousin with her handle of Smirnoff and cranberry just wailing. Deep deep deep earth rattling wails. Theres so much to it the grief of having a child deployed in a never ending war. I only know the feels of having a cousins child deployed but damn it I love that child to the moon and back seven hundred gizzillion million times. I sat with my cousin making myself a liberal drink, I might as well say I added enough juice to make the vodka a light interpretation of pink....
    Holy hell just watching the muted news and holding her hand. Then off to home where it all came out I let out tears for everything I thought about this endless war. About all these babies who are deployed, or getting deployed.
    This has nothing to do with what you wrote today, and what I write you never really does. But I feel better after I get it all out.

    Until we meet again giant lift you off your feet spinning hugs Mary Moon. You have no idea how much you mean to me, or how much you inspire me to just do one thing better then yesterday.

    Maybe next time I'll tell just how far I fell down the rabbit hole I'm digging my way out of, not that you need to know but if I tell you then someone knows and then I'm not hiding how bad I got.

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    1. Our youth have always been our leaders' cannon fodder. It has always been thus. I am so sorry to hear that your cousin's son, beloved to you, deployed. It's the most ridiculous and unbelievable thing in the world that we still settle issues with war. With the actual blood of our children. I imagine that might be part of your grief. But of course I don't know.
      Please try to take comfort and perhaps do something else rather than listen to the police scanner. That cannot be healthy.
      Take care. Please.

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  4. What an interesting article. In addition to the differences in her genes, I wonder how much her upbringing and natural personality has an impact.

    The little dress is adorable. I'm sure Maggie will love it!

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    1. Yes. The article addressed that too- how much of it has to do with her upbringing and childhood?
      I doubt Maggie will give the dress a second thought but it makes me happy to make it.

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  5. "Don't let's Go to the Dogs" was one of my all time faves! I will pick that book up and will love reading her! Thank you for that. I did go to the book store today and just wandered aimlessly...Curious to read the article as well.
    That woman will probably live to be a couple of hundred yers old

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    1. She's written other books. Look her up because there's one between Don't Let's Go... and this one. "Cocktail Hour Under The Tree of Forgetfulness," I think.

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  6. That is fascinating. Does she get frightened?

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  7. A little pub-like place? You mean a drug den in someone's garage? Thumbs up for Maggie's dress. She will love it...hopefully!

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    1. "...a drug den in someone's garage". Haha! Those days are long past, Mr. P. I think this place was called Hobbit's Hoagies. It's bona fide.

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  8. I remember listening to an interview with her on CBC but I had forgotten about the emotional pain. I remember her saying that her kids worry about her a great deal as she gets older because she could fall and break something and have no pain. Childbirth without pain sounds fabulous; I'm surprised she didn't have more kids:)

    The dress is lovely. You're warming up and we're heading for a deep freeze. Sigh.

    Thirty people from Edmonton died on the Ukrainian plane yesterday. It was devastating here, a sad day, plus a snow storm that snarled traffic for hours on end.

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    1. I would have had fourteen kids if it hadn't hurt so damn much. Probably a good thing it did. I had no idea that thirty people from Edmonton were on that plane. Jesus.
      Be careful in that snow.

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  9. I haven't seen that article yet -- haven't gotten to that issue, I guess! It sounds fascinating. I'm looking forward to it now!

    I did read Alexandra Fuller's "dogs" book but I haven't read any of her others. Maybe I should give them a try, with all the free reading time I have. (Ha!)

    Maggie's dress looks great!

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    1. You really should read more Fuller. She's an amazing writer.
      Yeah. In your free reading time.
      I think I did a good job on this dress. For once.

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  10. Maggie’s dress is adorable. And I read about that woman who doesn’t feel pain. What blessed quiet it must be in her head. I can’t imagine. I’m reading the outlander books, which I got for Christmas. So far I’m enjoying them. I wish I’d known about them and followed them in real time. I was a more focused reader then. These days I’m so distractable. But she’s a good storyteller and I’m sort of obsessed with the central love story.

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    1. She is an excellent storyteller, isn't she? I listened to all of them on audio books and that was a good way to read them for me. If I lost the thread for a moment there was really no harm done!
      I can't imagine the peace that woman must live in either but I'd sure like to try it.

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  11. we had one cold night Tuesday night and now at 10 AM today it's 71˚ but overcast. maybe we'll get some rain which we really need. perhaps if Mr Moon researches long enough, you won't need a heater next winter. at this rate anyway.

    I have a high tolerance to pain and apparently to emotional pain as well though I do feel both.

    and I love the fabric you made Maggie's dress out of.

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    1. and that whole 'god never gives us more than we can bear' is a load of crap. just more religious bs to excuse a god that supposedly loves all but sends plenty of shit and never intervenes.

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    2. I am SO with you on religion. It's all just like one damn rationalization after another when the obvious answer to all of it is- there IS no god.
      Maybe science should study you, Ellen. You do seem to be pretty even-tempered.
      I think Mr. Moon has finally realized that it's only January and that we might actually need a heater before April.

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  12. Maggie's dress is adorable. You do nice work!

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  13. Thanks to you I can now look forward to another book by Alexandra Fuller. Made my day.
    Lovely sewing.

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