The Power of Pain

I once heard a story when I was a little boy that really had no effect on me other than the idea of how hilarious it was. Now, although I read this in a World War II novel, this particular incident was based on an actual event.
During the course of the Second World War, when many battle ships & armored carriers were docked off the coast of various south-eastern islands near Japan, there was one such ship. Onboard this particular ship was a detachment of Marines (Semper Fi), one particular marine was an individual named Private Donald “Duffy” Johnson, a real bear of a man who was a golden-gloves winner prior to enlisting in the marines. Johnson was not very liked by his other marines due to his bullying ways & overly aggressive attitude, culminating to a point where he was medically discharged prior to the storming of these islands due to an “accident” in the bathroom area of the ship involving some sort of fire, which led to him suffering second-degree burns along his buttocks & genital area, burning off his pubic hair in the process (excuse me for the details). One would believe this to be a debilitating accident which would limit his quality of life, yet this was not the case. Upon his subsequent discharge & recovery, Johnson ventured into the realm of adult-entertainment where he made a name for himself as an Adult-film star, specializing in hardcore pornographic movies.
We’re not talking about the pleasures that one can gain from porn (although it does have some benefits & I challenge anyone to disclaim that), the name of the game here is pain. Like most things in the world, pain is everywhere & it has many faces. Physical, psychological, emotional, so on & so forth. I’ve been living with the pain of a bruised shoulder & an injured knee since I was in high school.
But pain is not just some bad thing that we feel when we get hurt or some medieval form of corporal punishment. It’s not some big evil that the devil put on earth in order to seek pleasure from the agony that we would suffer from it.
Pain is much more than that. It is but another teacher in the class room called life. It is the reason we don’t jump off the roof of our garage with just a pillow case for a parachute or why we don’t play with fire. It’s what we live with during the course of our time here on earth. We all have our pain, which does shape the course of our lives, as well as who we are & who we will be.
As children, we grow up, terminally curious of the world we inhabit & wondering why certain things work the way they do. Naturally, we’ll touch the stove when it’s hot, stick our fingers in the electrical socket, slide down the stair railing, run into the streets & god knows what else. But these are incidents that teach us the fundamentals of life, namely our physical limitations.
As we progress through life, we tend to expand our scope of the world & thereby increase our chances of getting hurt, not just physically, but emotionally as well. First crush that don’t like us back, first break up, mom & dad telling us they’re disappointed in us or whatever.
In fact, within the realm of relationships, I witnessed, first hand, the school of “limited involvement”. What that implies is when one is in the mists of dating, they would date or associate with individuals whom they would think are nice, but would have limited chemistry with. Though there would be some form of mutual enjoyment had, either through an adult relationship or what not, it would be very limited in outcome due to the limited connection between the aforementioned couple. The bond, for lack of a better term, would be so regulated through that, that after a while, the relationship in question comes to a grinding halt, with no where to go. In an era of STD’s & the likes, where we are all made to memorize the steps & merits of “safe-sex”, society comes up with “safe-dating”, a way of experiencing the joys of dating without any of the undue emotional attachment & the potential pain that would come with the mentioned attachment.
Now, as trivial as the abovementioned example was, it is rather relevant to the observation of how people will not only always take the path of least resistance, but the path of least, or at the very least limited, risk. Sometimes people would rather achieve nothing and maintain a course of “pseudo-tranquility” than take a risk. The above mentioned is an example of how we can have the pleasures of proximity without the strings that come with it.
The problem with something like that, however, is that it limits the joy & fun, not just in a relationship, but in life itself. Life is about taking risks. It’s about living on the edge & throwing caution to the wind as we experience something. It’s about learning what we’re capable of, admittedly through the added pressure that would come with failure. But, that’s the wrong context.
Life, despite the sheer complications that we put into, is really quite simple. You fail in life if you don’t live it, but you don’t win or lose in life. You just live it. If you succeed, you rejoice. If you fall down, you get back up & keep going. If you make a mistake, you either fix it or learn from it. In short, whatever happens is suppose to shape u to be a better person, not get you down where you feel like you can’t keep going.
Life’s the biggest gamble of them all. It’s like a game of blackjack. You play the cards that you’re dealt & you see the hand through. There’s no refund, you don’t pull out at the last minute, if you fold, there’s hell to pay & ultimately, you deal with what comes out of it. But, like blackjack, life is not something that will always get you down. Although “blackjack is beatable” (Kevin Spacey-“21”-2007), life is not quite so clear-cut. What is required is an understanding of the need to take a risk in order to win big, in terms of monetary value or emotional gain.
You got to open yourself up to truly appreciate something; especially something that might be more fragile than one would realize or care to admit. Once you allow yourself to be vulnerable, you will incur a risk of personal injury & pain, but you should ask if you feel it’s worth it to find something special.
We all go through pain. But in the end, it’s a price we pay for something better, something good, something meaningful, something that will make us happy. The only question is, how much are we willing to risk?? How much pain are we willing to take??