Cure for Pain

 Someday there'll be a cure for pain
That's the day I throw my drugs away

When they find a cure for pain
~ Mark Sandman, Morphine 

     I could really use that cure today.

I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.
~ James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

     Mr. Baldwin is talking about a different sort of pain but he is, of course, spot fucking on.

One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.
~ Bob Marley

     Cure for pain? King Crimson’s Neal and Jack and Me, Paul Simon’s Cool Cool River, Jorma Kaukonen’s Embryonic Journey, Heart’s version of The Battle of Evermore, Bowie–Aladdin Sane and the list goes on and on. Music is the cure but most of it is completely beyond me now.

Behind every beautiful thing, there's some kind of pain.
~ Bob Dylan

‘Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’ Even people who say this must realize that the exact opposite is true. What doesn’t kill you maims you, cripples you, leaves you weak, makes you whiny and full of yourself at the same time. The more pain, the more pompous you get. Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you incredibly annoying.
~ Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

     Dunno what this guys experience of pain is but he’s nailed it. That is, when I’m in physical pain, which I am, I’m irritable, plaintive and can’t do a damn thing to help myself—like relax my bod, release the immense tension in every thread of my being (the tightness is only making things more excruciating). I fret, whine piss and moan before I take some Tylenol, Ibuprofen and a nice gummy. If I’m lucky I’ll fall into Nap Land. On waking I’ll have a fuzzy memory of the stabbiness but it’s not enough to excuse me from the guilt of not doing my rehab exercises. Damned if I do or don't.

     Maybe I’ll never walk without support again. Maybe I will. Today, doubt is haunting me.