Life is Pain, Highness!

My psychology teacher asked the class if anyone liked pain.  No one raised their hand obviously.

People don't like to think about pain.  It reminds them of a painful event that happened to them and consequently makes them feel sad.

In today's world, it is not "ok" to be sad.  So people have developed ways to forget about all the painful things that have happened to them.  Until... they are reminded...

I was just sitting in my Calculus class using the Mean Value Theorem to prove that 2 cyclists who start a race at 8:15 am and finish the race at the same time (2 and a half hours later) go the same speed at the same time at least once during the race when, I had a thought, an uncontrollable thought.  Something seemingly harmless-- the Dallas Cowboys and their new quarterback.  Then I thought about the reason why we have to use our back up for the next 6 to 8 weeks.  It was right then and there that my right arm went limp and I felt the need to hold up my arm with my left hand.  Thinking about Tony Romo's clavicular fracture made my mind go back in time.  Not necessarily back to the exact moment when I broke my clavicle (because I didn't know that I had shattered it at the time; I though I had just bruised it) but I was transported back to the moment after I stepped off the ice, took off my shoulder pads, and felt my shoulder-- looking for the bone that was there just a minute before.  As soon as I knew that my bone (that should be there) was, in fact, not there, I was unable to breathe without encountering pain.

This is why Westley in The Princess Bride says "Life is pain."  He understands there is no getting around it and therefore no using trying to hide the fact that he is enduring pain.

But there is another thing that I haven't quite touched upon...yet.

This, seemingly depressing quote, comes from one of the greatest comedic films of all time.

This is not to say that all life is pain.  But that we shouldn't think that we can avoid or escape all the pains or sufferings that life brings us.

However, we think that we should be able to avoid pain or at least escape past pains because, after all, they happened in the past and cannot be affecting us now.  When we do this, we set ourselves up for even more pain later because it will resurface and it will be much worse.

Westley has the right idea.  Pain and sadness are a part of life.  He doesn't avoid it and he certainly doesn't seek it out.  He doesn't bury it deep down and he doesn't dwell on it either.  He welcomes pain and sadness because it is just a part of life and he deals with them properly.

We all can take a lesson from Westley.


because deep down we all want to be a fencing pirate who beats giants and has an immunity to iocane powder, right?

All of this calls to mind the saying: "Don't take life seriously.  No one gets out alive anyway."

Our thoughts and prayers are with Declan Sullivan and his family.  Rest in peace.