Oh, the pain!

A funny thing happened today. I was taking something out of the oven, hand nicely covered with a stove glove, and the heat went straight through and burnt the dickens out of my palm. It scalded me enough that my skin went all shiny and slick. Now, I imagine you are all wincing at least a bit with sympathetic pain. Why is that?

I suppose the easy answer is that we've all felt something similar. But, we feel sympathetic pain even when it's totally unknown to us. Actually, witnessing someone in intense pain is one of the most difficult things to bear. Sadly, I know a lot about that, having watched my wife watching me (both knees are now bionic, yay!). I saw the pain reflected in her eyes, and it tore my heart out. I'd have done anything to prevent it. Sympathetic pain is incredibly powerful.

Men will understand this one, and that's seeing someone take a low hit. I cringe at the very thought. And women certainly flinch at the thought of child birth. It doesn't matter if one is a happy occasion and the other isn't. They're both painful and we sympathize.

Stories dealing with pain are pretty common really. Adventure stories, survival stories, and all kinds of other ones are loaded with pain and suffering, yet we keep going back for more. A recent movie, which made all kinds of money, was "127 Hours" -- about a guy who cut his own arm off to survive. Yeesh. Try to get that image out of your head!

- M