Sometimes I feel like a nut...

You know the ad. It goes on to say, "Some times I don't." It's for a candy bar. But, like all things I beat to death, it is a statement of life, attachment and finding enlightenment.

(Stay with me, it may be the pain pills.)

Sometimes I feel enthused, sometimes I don't. Sometimes I feel good, sometimes I don't. etc., sic, bene ad naseum.

That's Sherri Mertz dragging her Explorer up from Lake Michigan on Milwaukee's lake front (I can see your minds spinnning ahead as the brilliance of this metaphor of life leaps into your consciousness). To continue: would you say she was happy at the the moment I shot this pic, or was she sad, down and even in pain? Answer: we have no way of knowing. Not enough info (see blog below on athlete's and pain and facial expressions). But, so today's blog will make at least a little sense, presume she feels pain.

Now, if I can spell his name correctly, I would tell you that the German philosopher Nitsche said, "Say yes to the pain." Zen masters talk about allowing the pain in and examining it. In The Power of Now (and modern psychiatry) we are told to be the watcher or the observer. What do all of these bits of wisdom have in common?

They allow us to step outside of our pain, to take the position that it is our body and/or our brain which feel pain, not the true us. We can, therefor, disassociate from the discomfort, rise above it, examine it and perhaps learn something from it.

So I think, dissociate, rise, examine, etc...and wallah!...I have learned something.

I've learned that my friggin' back hurts and that I can't go out to play with the other kids. Grant me this one wish and I will help Sherri drag that boat all the way home. Where are my pills?

DS