Most of the time I feel good. But yesterday I got up with a tender sore spot under the brace I wear on my left leg.
And because I don't suffer well, I start the day off whining to myself. Not out loud. But in my head. I mean, after all, I used serious opiates for some 38 years because of imaginary emotional pain. That pain was so bad that covering it up with heroin put me in jail many times.
But now here's a real, tangible pain. Sore and real. But because I've been clean for nearly 25 years I elect to do nothing about it.
Because today I look at painkillers with trepidation. Even with legitimate pain. I ask myself what's worse? Killing the pain with a doctor's prescription? Or risking a relapse? So I do nothing, not even an Advil.
Then as I'm on my eight minute drive to the office I find the cure for the pain. As I'm sitting at the light I notice a man half my age who's riding on an electric cart, kind of hunched over.
All of a sudden the pain faded into the background.
I realized that though this man might not have been in pain, there was some reason he was on that cart, hunched over.
And I immediately realized that pain is a relative thing. And the rest of the day went better.
Click here to email John
