One of my favorite films is “All About Eve” which features an all-star cast. The best scene is at a cocktail party. The main character, played by Bette Davis, stands on the steps of a small stairway leading to her sunken living room she makes an announcement to her guests, just after finishing her second martini, “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”
Just yesterday on the other side of the world there was a huge plane that upon landing split into several pieces. The passengers were seen jumping out of many the pieces of the plane that were torn wide open. So far, miraculously there haven’t been any reported deaths. A spokesperson from the airline was quoted as saying that the plane had a “rather rough landing” A ROUGH LANDING? I saw the photos of the plane and it was literally sliced into about six pieces! Now that is a man who sees an obvious disaster (or close to a disaster) and he sees the disaster as a “rough landing”. I am assuming that this is exactly why this man was chosen as a spokesperson for this airline. He sees a bag of soon to be spoiled lemons and he makes a big, beautiful, crystal, pitcher, of lemonade.
As I write this post it is the second day in a row that I have had back pain. Not just a little back pain, a back pain that was so bad yesterday that I went to the emergency room at my local hospital. It is a hospital that at this point knows me well. I wouldn’t say we are exactly best friends yet, however, when I put my drivers’ license into the machine located near the hospital entrance, the machine welcomed me back and told me to have a seat and to wait for the nurse to arrive to pick me up.
After many tests and five different kinds of medication, I was released. My son picked me up due to the fact that I was drugged to the hilt and I returned to my apartment. I was tired and drugged, however, I still had back pain. I decided, what the heck, and I took two more Tylenol for good measure. If they didn’t kill me, at the very least they might help. Thank God, I slept through the night.
I have had this horrible back pain in the past, for the last five years, about once a year.
Doctors haven’t been able to guess why I get this pain or how to relieve the pain. Here is the very boring part of the post where I am going to explain the pain. So if you want to skip to the end of this post you may. You have my permission. Well, here goes…
The pain starts out on the left side of my back in the middle of my back. It isn’t on a bone, it seems like it is in a muscle, however; when given muscle relaxers I feel weird but I still have the same pain. When given something for the nerves, I still have pain. When given painkillers and as you may know, painkillers can kill you, but they don’t kill my pain. I believe there is a little man somewhere or woman for that matter, who may be pushing pins in a cloth doll that resembles me. They push one pin in and take it out and wait a few seconds and then they push the pin in again. It is a type of torture that I wouldn’t wish on anyone, well, maybe a person or two from my past. No, I wouldn’t even wish it on them. I know the doctors or nurses reading this blog (assuming a doctor or nurse or two will be reading this blog) are thinking which test that I could take to finally find the answer to my yearly (usually three day) back pain. To answer these possible questions, I have had every test in the book. Everything seems perfect.
I might have an answer. You see, this pain takes precedence over all other pain. In other words, if you are having real physical pain, all other pain or problems are pushed to the side. Physical pain can’t be ignored therefore; all other problems are forgotten, at least for a little while. The old scary problems have to take second place. First things first, take away the back pain first before we can concentrate on how you are going to pay your ever-increasing bills or rent. When you lie awake night after night wondering how you are going to manage life from now until the end of your life, this can be difficult and painful. So who pops up? Good old reliable, horrible, excruciating, back pain, that’s who.
Maybe the best way to handle our problems, even big problems, is to remember what that spokesperson for the airline said about the plane’s landing. Maybe the thing that looks and feels like a big crash landing to you is really just a rough landing. Maybe we can jump down from that open gash in the plane and land on our two feet. Personally, I have some old lemons in the fridge and I have some sugar in my cupboard. I think that I might make a big pitcher of lemonade tonight. This weekend I might add some Vodka to it.
Until Next Week…
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