Chronic Pain Lifestyle

Winds are Named Whence They Came

      Sometimes I read something, like Anne's essay about shoes and people watching, and I wish I'd written it.  Snippy and snide, Anne opens a door and through that door I see her love of ordinary people.  Too bad everyone doesn't feel that way.  By way of response, Anne, these are some of the things I hold close.

     Here are the ten best things about growing up in Boston:

1. The Red Sox transcended all gaps.  Political, religious, generational.  It seems that every Summer the SAWX brought it's fandom to the brink.  But we were smart; we loved them, but didn't trust them at all.  It's just like...
2. Boston Irish Brothers who love one another but wouldn't wouldn't lend so much as a button, quarter, to a sibling.  Money was a funny thing between us.  We freely give, and share even our best...
3. Winter Shorts, knee-length Madras short pants, worn without sox, feet covered in 6 inch Timberlands, topped by a grey hoody and a down vest, completed by a Red Sox baseball hat that had been run through the washing machine until shapeless.  Dishwashers changed that, the top shelf being perfect for conditioning a cap.  Don't forget an elastic, rubber band, securing beneath the brim...
4. An empty Coke can.  Coke was a generic term for any carbonated soft drink.  Root beer, was a root beer coke and orangeade was an orange coke.  Soft drinks were called tonic by really old people, who were addressed as...
5. Mr. and Mrs. Always.  All adults were Mr. or Mrs.
6. Townies, real Bostonians are friendly to strangers when addressed by them first;  the thought being that you'd naturally want to be left alone, not bothered by the locals. The locals of course don't want to be bothered by you either though a certain allowance is made for out of town adult.
7. The smell of my grandmother, Nana's, house.  She's passed, now; but man could she cook.  She was cozy, just like her house.  She had a spinning wheel that was several generations old, I love her. Some of her friends from high school outlived her, though Nana confided to some that many of these folks had "wandered".  My mother is called...
8. Mum, as most mothers in New England.  New England...
9. has four real seasons.  The only crummy one is Spring, which is chilly, windy, and rainy.  Winter and Fall are magnificent.  Summer is hot until August nights, when you can smell fall on the air.  The sky takes the color of lead as Fall breaks to...
10. Winter.  My Favorite season.  As a child we skated on our pond, played pond hockey, lost thousands of pucks, shoveled driveways. And day or night, turned our chins into the first storm of the year.  We'd face whence the wind came, Nor'East.

I wonder if my kids will ever feel this way about where we live now?

Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

      I was born in '59.  I think more occurred in these formative years than in many decades, ever.  I was a kid and by the age of 10, after a decade of life, these things had happened:

1. American kids were called to fight in the tiny country of Vietnam.  50,000 of them died. Most of them were poor, uneducated, young, and conscripted.  The nation was split, sometimes violently (Kent State), between those who opposed the war, and those who did not. The soldiers themselves were largely apolitical.  When the soldiers returned, dead disabled or otherwise, they were wrongfully blamed for the war.  As a nation we may not live down our heinous treatment of these men.  The war was on TV.
2. JFK was assassinated.  Martin Luther King was assassinated.  Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. Malcolm X was assassinated.  One of my first memories was of my mother crying at the kitchen sink, radio on, as the broadcasters talked about JFK.
3. We walked on the Moon.  Many times in grammar school I sat through interminable broadcasts of NASA events.
4. Hippies.  They were nice to kids.
5. Woodstock. Hard to imagine even in this day.  If you haven't seen the site in White Lake, NY (about 2 hours NW of NYC) then go.  Strangely it hasn't changed much. The roads are pretty, narrow and twisting to Max Yazgar's farm. Watch the movie, then marvel at the spectacle it must have been. Many of the locals are still alive.
6. The Red Sox played in the '67 Series.  Red Sox fans call the "67 Series" the "Impossible Dream."  It cost $1.00 to buy a bleacher seat, or you could wait until the 7Th inning stretch, when they opened the gates and a fan could walk in for nothing.
7. Music changed forever.  I mean all popular music. Topics that were just, "not spoken of in polite society", became fodder for all songs.
8. Race relations: When I was very young, much of the South was still segregated.  This issue was divisive enough that many leaders in the civil rights movement were always in danger of their lives.  Lynchings still occurred.  Among factions within with Black and White leadership ran from extremists, Lester Maddux and George Wallace, to the Black Panthers, all advocating violent solutions, to moderate voices. The issue still rages.  Many cities suffered the horror of race riots, Newark, NJ for example.
9. Generation Gap.  As Blacks and Whites fought for a middle ground, so did the young and the old.  The status quo from previous generations was under fire, typically at Democratic and Republican National Conventions.  These were also violent confrontations.  Students seized buildings at Universities, Columbia, for example; and were shot for their trouble-making ways (Kent State).
10. Do Your Thing:  Free Love, Drugs, particularly LSD, as a mind expanding experience.  This was a fundamental mantra of Hippie/Yippie culture, which spawned the creation of communes.

     There's a lot more to be said about all of these topics, and I'm sure I've missed a few.  My point is that the '60's were a wonderful time to be a kid.  It was the decade when everything changed.  We know this because Walter Cronkite told us.

     I was listening to some old Bob Dylan stuff, Highway 61, Revisited, and The Freewheeling Bob Dylan.  My kids liked it.  I tried to explain, but they didn't understand.

     Take this Step #14, Don't think twice its alright.  Forgive them All.

The 10 Most Read Articles on Chronic Pain Lifestyle

Here's the list of the most popular articles written by Anne or Colin, all decorated by Dorothy Gantenbein, from 10Th to 1st.  Your feedback is always welcome.

         10.  "To Do or Not to Do Lists"; Anne's first article is in the category "Anne's Corner"; tied with, "Chinese Love Beads"  by Colin in the category, "Strength".

          9. "This is my Wife, She doesn't Speak English"  by Anne, found in "Anne's Corner".

          8.  A four-way tie at #8 among "Determination" by Anne, also in "Anne's Corner"; and "Malcolm Muggeridge chooses life or Death" in "faith", "Mr. Pincushion Man...HE WALKS" in "my personal history",  and  "Want To Feel Better Right Away?"  found in "big gains"

          7. "Drop the Mask and Go Say Hi to a Stranger...", by Colin, in "Big Gains".

          6. A 4-way tie: "C.S. Lewis said..." in "Faith"; : "The First 5 Steps to a Better Life..." in "List of 100 Steps..."; "Stupidity of a Special Kind..." in "big gains; and "The Plan Done Today is Better Than a Perfect Plan Done..."  in "List of 100 Steps..."

          5. "Around Every Corner is Something New" in "Hope"

          4. 6 articles tied at 4: Anne's are all found in "Anne's Corner": "The Boat Story"; "OOhhh MY aching Back..." and 2 of my faves by Anne, "Did You Bring a Shovel" and the corker, " The Top 10 Reasons I'm Glad to be Disabled."   Two by me at #4 are.  "Get the Hell out of Your Own Way.." in "List of 100...", and "...Life's Cost of Admission..." in "Life on Life's term's

          3. Tie at #3 between "Man Smart, Woman Smarter" in "Love and affection"; and "Back Surgery: After Multiple Stab Wounds..." in "acceptance"

          2.  Anne's salacious, "Norwegians Keep Their Clothes On" in "Anne's Corner"

          1. "It's my Party and I'll Cry if I Want to" in "set-backs"

     There are 51 articles so far, from May 6Th to date, June 20. I don't know what you think, but that's one hell of a lot of writing.  Ten is an arbitrary number.  Not much separates #3 from #23I'm particularly happy to have such a strong and passionate co-writer, Anne.

     If someone had told me that I and some woman I've never met would write 51 articles about living with pain, and really not even scratch the surface, I'd not have believed it.

      I've always wanted to write a book; so has Anne.  I could never get started. Now I'm a quarter of the way there.  Don't think about it. DO IT. God Bless, Colin