Pain Ramble

There is something lonely about harbouring chronic pain... While there may be others who have been through analogous ills, whether psychic or somatic, our own pains are humble reminders of our vulnerable separateness... Others can share interpretative tools to these pains, giving us perspective, convincing us of their relative inconsequentiality or impermanence (say, by offering imminent cures), or even by suggesting that we are not the first to have experienced anything quite as dire, but we are ourselves left to consent or not to consent to these interventions, nursing the sensations that course through our bodies and mind ourselves... Our any words, sounds, or convulsions but meek translations of an otherwise very private ordeal.