I was telling my brother last week how when you are in the boxing ring fighting your opponent (oppressor) you don't feel his punches. You just hear the sound of his/her glove hit your head and if it hits your eye you'll see a white spark. About a month ago, I hurt my jaw really bad fighting @job Friday. It has been a month since our fight and chewing has been very difficult. But when I was fighting him my mind body and spirit were one. So, as painful as his left hook was when it connected with my jaw… I just continued fighting.
I think I lied about this post not being a pharmacology article. It sort of is. But allow me to make my point. When you take opiates like morphine. They act on receptors in the brain (opioid receptors) and they have an analgesic effect. They also have a sedative effect (they make you sleepy). Psychostimulants (cocaine) on the other hand act on a separate receptor on the brain. They cause a state of euphoria (state of happiness). If they are taken in the right amounts they also produce a similar analgesic effect.
Please, let me land on my point before you swipe away. There is this clinical psychologist (Viktor Frankel) who survived the holocaust as a prisoner. In his book The Meaning of Life he wrote, "suffering be like bicycle" lol no. he didn't write that. But what he did say about suffering was that it is like a gas. And it fills every vessel it finds itself in.
What he meant was that we all suffer. Everybody. Nobody is excepted. Everybody is fighting one battle or the other. The very rich man you saw yesterday has a terminal illness. The very happy woman on the bus last month is over 40 and alone. He is being cheated on, she is a single mother, they are getting a divorce, some are failing out of school, others have lost their loved ones and the list goes on. We all suffer. Some have food but they cannot eat, some can eat but have no food.
Pain is real. Pain will not stop until you are dead. Regardless of who you are or what you believe. You know pain. You believe in it. Because it is real. But sometimes we take a break from the pain and feel happy. That is a miracle. Like I said in my formal post… it is the answer to the prayers that we never prayed and that we never say thank you for.
One of the ways we take a break from it all is when we go on holidays or when we share our favorite meal with loved ones. Or when we laugh at funny jokes. We escape. But in a short while, we are reminded…after our sleep of just how painful life is.
This post is long now…and I haven't still made my point. But here it is. Holidays and nice meals…and sweet jokes are like opiates. They cause you to sleep off and forget your pain. But in no time…the pain is back. Even though time heals wounds…living your life that way is not only unproductive…it is not sustainable.
But here are the psychostimulants…: doing a thing that excites you and at the same time is productive. I started this post with a seemingly irrelevant story about my experience while boxing. But that is the experience of many athletes. Whether it is the basketballer with a broken finger or the boxer who is bleeding from his nose.
What is beautiful about it is…it covers for the pain of the process and the pains in life. I have watched my friends play football on PlayStation for nothing less than 20 hours. If I play football for 3 hours my thumb starts hurting…and when it does…I don't care if you are winning me or not…I really no wan play again.
But this post is not about boxing or video games or pharmacology. It's about finding something that consumes you that is productive and at the same time helps you live through this painful existence that is life.
When you find it…all the nihilistic thoughts about life will fade away and life will mean more to you. You might not be able to define your life. But it will definitely mean more to you and those around you.
PEACE.