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“And at some point you realize that there are more flavors of pain than coffee. There's the little empty pain of leaving something behind ‒ graduating, taking the next step forward, walking out of something familiar and safe into the unknown. There's the big, whirling pain of life upending all of your plans and expectations. There's the sharp little pains of failure, and the more obscure aches of successes that didn't give you what you thought they would. There are the vicious, stabbing pains of hopes being torn up. The sweet little pains of finding others, giving them your love, and taking joy in their life as they grow and learn. There's the steady pain of empathy that you shrug off so you can stand beside a wounded friend and help them bear their burdens.
And if you are very, very lucky, there are a few blazing hot little pains you feel when you realize that you are standing in a moment of utter perfection, an instant of triumph, or happiness, or mirth which at the same time cannot possibly last ‒ and yet will remain with you for life.
Everyone is down on pain, because they forget something important about it: Pain is for the living. Only the dead don't feel it.”
― Jim Butcher, White Night
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I was puzzled until I realised that when he used the word 'pain' he meant 'non-pain', i.e. the non-morphine-requiring variety.
Posted by: herr doktor bimler | December 12, 2011 at 04:28 PM
The panes in Spain are mainly broken when people complain, he man-splained.
~
Posted by: ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© | December 12, 2011 at 05:15 PM
I like that explaining voice and what it is explaining.
Posted by: blue girl | December 12, 2011 at 05:36 PM
I sure could go for a steaming hot cup of life-affirming pain right about now.
Posted by: Big Bad Bald Bastard | December 12, 2011 at 05:38 PM
They have that down at the Paineteria.
Posted by: Substance McGravitas | December 12, 2011 at 08:59 PM
I usually get mine at au bon pain...
Posted by: zombie rotten mcdonald | December 12, 2011 at 10:00 PM
Pain is for the living. Only the dead don't feel it.
Whew. Dodged a bullet there.
Posted by: zombie rotten mcdonald | December 12, 2011 at 10:01 PM
Only the dead don't feel it.
Bites tongue on later-series spoilers.
Posted by: Mandos | December 13, 2011 at 07:29 AM
Oops. Sorry! :)
Posted by: Jennifer | December 13, 2011 at 07:49 AM
Nonono, I was biting my tongue on spoilers *for you*, if you haven't read all the way to the current book :)
Posted by: Mandos | December 13, 2011 at 09:12 AM
Wow
Posted by: Von | December 13, 2011 at 11:25 AM
Icy, said the blind man as he fell into the lake.
~
Posted by: ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© | December 13, 2011 at 04:25 PM
I need to know more about salt. Or adhesives.
Posted by: zombie rotten mcdonald | December 13, 2011 at 04:43 PM
It's a sticky topic, zrm.
~
Posted by: ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© | December 13, 2011 at 05:53 PM
"Say, line" said the point.
Posted by: herr doktor bimler | December 14, 2011 at 05:20 AM
related
Posted by: Jennifer | December 14, 2011 at 06:59 AM
Is this why the truth hurts?
Posted by: Brando | December 14, 2011 at 01:51 PM
Harry delivers great monologues.
Posted by: Kathleen | December 19, 2011 at 06:50 PM