Suffering

Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones Deck prompts — We all know people who suffer. How many ways are there to suffer? Go, ten minutes.

There are so many people suffering. Some are in physical pain, while others are in psychological pain. All suffering. I think of the homeless, and there are so many more now than ever before.

Many years ago, I was in the country's capital on a tour, and the tour guide directed our view away from the homeless sleeping on the street. Once I saw that, I didn’t see anything else.

In a country so rich, how can this be, and in our country's capital, I thought, what is wrong with our government and its people? Isn’t our government supposed to be the people?

Some suffering can be fixed. Emotional suffering happens similarly. So much suffering is going on in our communities. You can’t always tell by looking at someone that they are suffering. The man above, you could think he’s had some tough luck.

Maybe he fought for this country in the war, and now he has nowhere to go. He is struggling with PTSD and is stuck in the past. His family has disowned him because of what this country called on him to do. And now he is ignored. People walk by him on the street.

The toughest group for me is our children, who are being abused, be it physically, mentally, or sexually. All abuse, all life experiences that are so hard to listen to. No child should be experiencing that. And yet it may be happening right next door.

Physical suffering is something many people live with every day. There are exercises for that, some say. Is there? Sometimes there isn’t, and the suffering can be made worse.

Then, when it does help, it may not last. Sometimes we don’t believe the experts, and sometimes the experts do not know what will make it better. Drugs? Sometimes, and sometimes the drugs make it worse, or we get addicted to the medication, adding to our suffering.

Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones Deck prompts — This is a good assignment. We need to consider suffering. Who doesn’t suffer? Think about it.

Now choose one person and tell about their individual suffering.

Two professional women whom I worked with many years ago. It happened to them about a year apart. They had both been in a car accident and were dealing with so much pain after the crash.

They were initially given pain medication. Their lives and careers appeared to be going well. As a matter of fact, one of the women had recently been given a promotion.

Our state had orders to cut back on prescription medications, as there were too many people getting addicted. That order happened at the same time that high-quality heroin came into the state at a low cost.

The women were cut off, living with chronic pain, and it was only a short time before they were on heroin. Heroin made their life worse, and they both died from a drug overdose.

The cases of these two women could be attributed to both physical pain and psychological pain that ended their lives.

And the government and doctors were not preparing their patients properly for the changes that would come with cutting people off that medication, with an underlying concern for their medical license.

Some people think that is why medical marijuana began. Lessor of two evils, some say.

~~~~

Published first by Mercury Press