Yet We Should Keep Trying

The author of this poem [the book of Job] is a profound philosopher with a superb command of language and an exquisite sense of natural beauty.  But the astonishing thing about the book of Job is that everyone who reads it comes to a somewhat different conclusion.   Job makes us vividly aware of the paradoxes in one of life’s ultimate questions —  why do we suffer pain?  —  but he doesn’t solve the problem.  He merely demonstrates that there are no easy answers.
This is similar to one of the principal discoveries of computer science, namely that some problems are inherently so complex that they can’t possibly be solved in a finite number of steps.  We must learn to face the fact that an intellectual approach will not lead to an understanding of the cosmos; we can’t transcend our limitations.  Yet we should keep trying.  We should question authority and be aware that the traditional wisdom of religious orthodoxy might be mistaken.  This book says that after an honest search, like job’s, we’ll learn to trust God’s fairness  —  even though some good men suffer, even though some wicked men prosper, even though religion itself remains a mystery.
—  Donald E. Knuth
From his book:  “3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated“
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On This Day In:
2018	Let Us Dare
2017	Two Good To Be Real
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2016	Learning Subtle Differences
2015	Dog Eat Dog World?
2014	And Sometimes Blogs About It
2013	Outside-In
2012	They Are All Perfect
2011	Delegation – The “How-To’s”
2009	Diet Update and Other Bits & Bobs…

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Day 22: Step And Hang

The end of day twenty-two and the start of day twenty-three…
Morning weight:  339lbs.
I am now down “34/41”.  As in, 34lbs down from my fasting start weight: 373lbs, and 41lbs down from my highest weight ever (two days before I started the fast): 380lbs.  Today’s loss is a 2lb loss, down from 341lbs yesterday.
My son (James) moved out of the house about seven years ago.  I “inherited” his bedroom.  Over the course of time I’ve turned it into another library storage room for my book collection and I’ve (slowly, slowly) added bits and pieces of workout equipment to make it into a mini-gym.  My wife has been in constant battle with me over this as she believes the room is her personal rent-a-space.  I routinely go in and find she’s moved something into “storage”.  I then have to find some way to organize the new items so I can still walk around and use the room as I want to.  LOL.  It’s a constant battle which I slowly win as she doesn’t care what I do with the things as long as she doesn’t have to see or dust them anymore.
Today I moved a bunch of my weights and barbells around in the room.  I laid down some more rubber floor pads.  (Almost the whole floor covered now.)  And, I (re-)setup my inversion table.  Because our housing association community pool was extremely busy today, I decided to pack in the swim and do some step-ups instead.  I cleared a bit of floor space, and did my 30 minutes.  (That was more than enough to raise a sweat and to remind me how old I am.)  I started using step-ups to workout way back in the 1990’s while we were living in Liverpool.  Step-ups are one of those routine exercises that benefit you by giving you a workout without taking you anywhere.  So you have ready access to as much water as you want and to a toilet if needed.  Just my cup of tea…
After the step-ups, I hopped up on “the rack” and gave it a flip for about five minutes.  I got “into” inversion therapy (“hanging”) back in the early 1980’s.  I had a partially slipped disc in my lower back when I was in high school and I spent a good deal of time in pain, which got substantially worse (severe, chronic and constant) when I left the Army and started getting out of shape.  I heard about hanging on TV one evening and I felt desperate enough to try anything (but surgery).  I went to a store which offered them.  I tried one.  Within five minutes my back “popped” and it felt like an exploding nova in the base of my spine.  And then, nothing…  Absolutely, no pain for the first time in close to four or five years.  I got off the demo machine, handed the man my plastic and I’ve owned and used an inversion table ever since.  Sometimes frequently.  Most times only occasionally (once or twice a year).  Either way, I’ve carried my tables to Europe and back again when we returned.  And, yes, I am a avid proponent, advocate, champion (etc.) for inversion / hanging.
Epiphany:  I just re-read the last paragraph and it just hit me how I’ve spent most of my late twenties and most of my fifties and early 60’s in pain.  Chronic and sometimes debilitating pain.  Between my pinched nerve in my lower back and my kidney and gall stones, I’ve been a mess!  LOL.  It’s amazing to me how adaptable the human mind is.  When you are in pain, it is all-consuming.  When you are not in pain, you can take time to smell the roses (forget about the thorns) and look forward to meeting the challenges of day to day living.  We really are strange creatures.  (Or at least I am.)
Apologies to anyone who came expecting to read about my fast.  Sometimes my thoughts wander…  To tell the truth, other than being a bit tired, it’s been an easy (boring) day – fast wise.  And I think that’s a good thing!
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On This Day In:
2017	Adrift In The Oval Office
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2016	Just Ask “The Donald”
2015	Did You Pass On It?
2014	Even When It Ain’t, It Is
2013	Still Happens
2012	Possessing Eternity
2011	I Thought We Were Talking About Afghanistan

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Drug Epidemic In America

Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.
―  J.K. Rowling
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On This Day In:
2016	Word Up, Chuck!
2015	Sometimes I Wonder About Things
2014	Still Racing
2013	Anew
2012	Make Both
2011	Are You Happy Yet?

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To My Brother

It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know.  We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death.
—  Eleanor Roosevelt
[You must continue to love, even when the loss seems unbearable.  Not because it is easy, but because it is right and you are good; and because you still have much to offer others.  —  KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2015	For Junior
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2014	Hmmm
2013	What’s A Motto With You?
2012	Worthy Companions
2011	Bourne Again
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In Defense Of Pain

I’ve said before that only the dead feel no pain, but I’d never spoken from experience before.  Pain used as a weapon is one thing.  Personal pain, the kind that comes from just living our lives, is something else.
Pain isn’t a lot of fun, at least not for most folks, but it is utterly unique to life.  Pain — physical, emotional, and otherwise — is the shadow cast by everything you want out of life, the alternative to the result you were hoping for, and the inevitable creator of strength.  From the pain of our failures we learn to be better, stronger, greater than what we were before.  Pain is there to tell us when we’ve done something badly — it’s a teacher, a guide, one that is always there to both warn us of our limitations and challenge us to overcome them.
For something no one likes, pain does us a whole hell of a lot of good.
—  Harry Dresden (a fictional character)
From “Ghost Story” a novel written by Jim Butcher
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