A Strange and Troublesome Thing

Got going early, to drive to Évora, for Mike to have a psychological test as part of getting his Portuguese license (he has more categories than I have). He did very well, apparently. Meanwhile, I wandered round the misty city, slightly depressed by all the closed establishments, the subdued atmosphere, and the lack of people on streets that would normally be busy. When will this begin to get better??

Both of us have felt a bit unwell since, he more than me.

Gratefuls:
- the beauty of the countryside in the mist
- two new tyres arriving and being fitted, as we came back though Reguengos
- FTs with the family, miss them

The Body, ch 19 - Nerves and Pain, p353, 364
Pain is a strange and troublesome thing. Nothing in your life is more necessary and less welcome. It is one of humanity's greatest preoccupations and bewilderments, and medical science's greatest challenges...
For millions of people, pain is a nightmare that cannot be escaped... about 40 per cent of adult Americans - one hundred million people - are experiencing chronic pain at any given moment. One fifth of them will suffer it for more than twenty years. Altogether chronic pain affects more people than cancer, heart disease and diabetes combined. It can be hugely debilitating. As the French novelist Alphonse Daudet noted...the pain that racked him... left him 'deaf and blind to other people, to life, to everything except my wretched body'.

Which is why I so admire my friend and fellow Blipper, Rainette.