Mother Nature Meets Father Time

Necessary Evils

As I started to get dressed today, preparing for my extensive evening shift of work, I reached for something high in the cupboards, and excrutiating pains ran through my shoulder to my neck, and then followed down my back, on my right side. My daughter was watching me.

"Mama," she said, "I wish you never had to be in pain. I wish pain never existed."

"Sammy," I said, "What do you do on a sunny day, before you go outside to play?"

"I put on sunblock," she said, a little confused at my question.

"Why?" I asked her.

"So I don't get burned and get skin cancer," she said. She is almost ten, and her last grading period was spent discussing summer safety and the consequences of neglecting such rules of safety.

"How do you know when your back is burned?" I asked her.

"It hurts," she said, matter-of-factly.

"And if it didn't hurt, how would you know it was burned?" I asked her.

"I wouldn't," she said as she lowered her head. My point had almost sunken into her stubborn head. Then she looked up at me and said, "But you are already hurt, Mama, so why do you have to feel the pain over and over again?"

"What would happen if I put too much strain on my hurt arm?" I asked her.

"Oh, I get it," she said as she started to walk away.

I was not going to let her off that easily, "What would happen, Sam?"

"Your whole arm would fall off and you wouldn't be able to do anything for us anymore!" she screamed at me and ran upstairs in tears.

Yes, she now understood that there are necessary evils in the world. Pain is that blinking yellow light which tells us to slow down, and be careful. The next time you feel pain, you should be thankful for such a wonderful warning system, which makes it very difficult for you to ignore the situation.