Pain

Pain [peyn]
--noun

1. 
   
   Physical suffering or distress, as due to injury, illness, etc.
   
   
   
2. 
   
   A distressing sensation in a particular part of the body
   
   
   
3. 
   
   Mental or emotional suffering or torment
   
   
   

Synonyms:

Ache, affliction, agony, burn, catch, convulsion, cramp, crick, discomfort, distress, fever, gripe, hurt, illness, injury, irritation, laceration, malady, misery, pang, paroxysm, prick, sickness, smarting, soreness, spasm, sting, stitch, strain, tenderness, throb, throe, tingle, torment, torture, trouble, twinge, wound

That's dictionary.com's definition of "pain" and its synonyms. There are 38 synonyms listed and 3 different uses of the word "pain" and yet, we use just one simple word to sum up all of our hurts, afflictions, ailments, and bothers. What is so strong about the word "pain"? Why is it able to sum up any and all things that may be bothering us in our daily lives? Is it laziness? We are simply too lazy to use a 6 letter word such as "injury"? Maybe it's because the word "pain" more than adequately describes what we feel. When we hear "pain", our mind automatically covers every ailment from the slightest prick or bump all the way up to excruciating agony that a serious accident may cause. Words such as "ailment" only bring thoughts of sickness, and "injury" immediately flashes images of broken bones, serious cuts and burns, and disaster sites. "Pain" is the only word that can cover all these things and more.

So what is pain? Obviously we are all familiar with typical, everyday pains such as bumping into a table, hitting our head, getting a small burn, etc. This type of pain is fairly tangible and understood, even with differing pain tolerances and ways of dealing with pain. What about emotional pain? Or mental pain? These types of pain can neither be measured, nor understood by anyone except who is feeling it. How then, can we use the same word as physical harm? It neither feels the same nor is talked about in the same way. Even the causes of mental and emotional pain are different than physical pain. Physical pain is caused by objects, matter, or waves coming into contact with your body and acting negatively upon you. Mental pain has virtually nothing physical attached to it. It comes from the effects of radical religious believers, from betrayal and harm caused by our loved ones, from the torture of a lover playing with your heart, or from the disappearance of a God we always thought would be there.

There are all kinds of sayings out there relating to pain and overcoming pain. "No pain, no gain," "the strongest will survive," "pain is weakness leaving the body," and the whole idea of natural selection: overcoming pain and suffering because of certain traits you have is beneficial in the end. Sure, there are some good aspects to pain such as it alerting us to things that are wrong within our bodies, but is it really possible to argue that pain is good for you? All these phrases tell us that going through pain is good and the more we go through, the stronger we are and will become…but is this healthy? Between 2003 and 2004 (the most recent data I could find), the suicide rate among young people ages 10-24 jumped nearly 8 percent. Suicide was cited as the 4th most common way to die among young people in 2004, the 11^th most common in the United States, and was in the top 3 for males, whites, American Indians, and Asian-Americans. The vast majority of suicides are a direct relation to mental health disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, and others. These forms of mental and emotional pain are behind the one of the top three most common causes of death for a majority of our population and yet, we still spread around phrases praising people for handling their pain and overcoming it by themselves. Yes, they may have accomplished a feat, but shouldn't we be a little more concerned about the people who are not able to overcome the pain by themselves, and who need help, else they become a statistic? Maybe our self-centered, natural selection-obsessed society should try to help ease the pain for people instead of causing more harm through "perfect" airbrushed models, movies that promote the "ideal" man, and inept leadership that seems to create more problems and stress than it fixes (Iraq, Afghanistan, a national debt of more than $12.3 trillion, Social Security, health care, etc.).

1/7/2010

© 2007-2010 Jacob Tauer
This information is not to be used in any form, online or off, without the express permission of the author

Anguish

Anguish

You judge me but you don't know the half of it.
You claim to know me but you don't know even half of me
You say we're so close, best buds, real tight.
Then you get with your friends and tear me down with your mental might
God will judge at life's last breath
But you like to judge long before a person's death.
I don't understand how you can be so mean, so cruel.
After all, what did I ever do to you?
I just live my life, go through day by day
But you go out of your way to say
That you can't stand what I believe, what I feel strongly about.
You tear me down and rip my soul out.
You make me feel like shit whether you know it or not
But can you please stop?
It's all I've got.

(Gunshot, siren)

Dear god forgive them, they know not what they've done.
Please forgive them
For your one and only son
has died for their sins,
They need not die,
I'll keep an eye on them from up here in the sky.
And maybe someday they'll realize that it really was their fault,
My life's demise.
Until then, Lord, I'll watch over them with you in the sky,
hoping they die……hoping they die.

12/9/2009

© 2007-2010 Jacob Tauer
This information is not to be used in any form, online or off, without the express permission of the author  

Jesus, Jesus

Jesus, Jesus – Noah Gundersen
Jesus, Jesus, could you tell me what the problem is
With the world and all the people in it?
Because I've been hearing stories about the end of the world
But I'm in love with a girl and I don't wanna leave her
And the television screams such hideous things
They're talking about the war on the radio
They say the whole thing's gonna blow
And we will all be left alone
No we'll be dead and we won't know what hit us
Jesus, Jesus, if you're up there won't you hear me
'Cause I've been wondering if you're listening for quite a while
And Jesus, Jesus, it's such a pretty place we live in
And I know we fucked it up, please be kind
Don't let us go out like the dinosaurs
Or blown to bits in a third world war
There are a hundred different things I'd still like to do
I'd like to climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower
Look up from the ground at a meteor shower
And maybe even raise a family
Jesus, Jesus, there are those that say they love you
But they have treated me so damn mean
And I know you said "forgive them for they know not what they do"
But sometimes I think they do
And I think about you
If all the heathens burn in hell, do all their children burn as well?
What about the Muslims and the gays and the unwed mothers?
What about me and all my friends?
Are we all sinners if we sin?
Does it even matter in the end if we're unhappy?
Jesus, Jesus, I'm still looking for answers
Though I know that I won't find them here tonight
But Jesus, Jesus, could you call me if you have the time?
And maybe we could meet for coffee and work it out
And maybe then I'll understand what it's all about



This song doesn't necessarily coincide with my beliefs but it struck home as I listened to it. There are so many problems, questions, doubts, fears, and God is not always visibly interacting with us. I’ve asked why He could let something like “this” happen, why He doesn't fix everything and just make everyone happy and peaceful. I’ve doubted his existence, doubted his power, doubted his ability to fix things. I’ve left Him out of my daily routine and I very nearly left Him behind when I left for college. I have essentially LIVED this song and I go through periods of hating myself for it. Then I step back and I realize, this isn’t what He wants. He doesn’t want me to hate myself for having doubts or being scared or leaving Him behind. Sure, it saddens Him when I do these things, but ultimately, all He wants is for me is to come back to Him, to believe in Him and love Him, and to share Him and His love with others. No doubt, it will be a constant, challenging test of my faith, especially while I’m at school but I know that if I trust in Him, and with enough of the right types of support, I can strengthen my faith in Him, even beyond what I had as a child.
Whether you believe in the same God as me, different Gods, or no God at all, this song can still speak to you. We are all more or less seeing, hearing about, and experiencing the same social problems. We all have doubts and fears about our government, wars, poverty, basic needs being met, and many other things. We all also have the same basic goals: to be successful in whatever we do, to be happy, to be a part of a loving, caring family, no matter what the makeup of that family may be. With all these similarities, you’d think we would be willing to sit down and talk to each other about our doubts and fears more often, to get things off our chests and relieve our minds. Here’s your chance to start. I’ve always offered to be an outlet for my friends to talk to if they ever have a problem or want to get something off their chest but I’ve never made a wide-spread effort to allow people to get things off their chest. This is my first attempt:
I have set up two e-mail accounts, caresandfears@hotmail.com and advice.please@hotmail.com . If you have any problems, any doubts, any fears that you just need to get off your chest without the feeling that someone will judge you, feel free to send them to the first one. This one is completely anonymous. I have set up the account purely for this purpose and I will never check it again. I used a password that is completely unique to the account and one that I will not remember 2 days from now.
If you have problems or questions you want advice or feedback on, send them to the second one. If you want to be anonymous, that’s fine too! Check out a disposable e-mail account such as the one at http://mytrashmail.com/ . Make sure you find one in which you can receive replies back or leave some other way of contacting you if this is the method you use. I will do my best to answer and advise and if I can’t personally help you, I’ll try to get you in touch with someone who can. You can also send cares and fears to this one if you want someone (me) to see them. If you don’t want feedback and just want to share, simply specify that in the e-mail and I will do nothing more than read it.

11/17/2009

© 2007-2009 Jacob Tauer
This information is not to be used in any form, online or off, without the express permission of the author