Understanding Pain
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This post contains censored sailor-talk.
As a youth, I bicycled a lot. As a result, I have three bicycle accidents to my credit. The first, when I was seven, was mostly a bad case of road rash. The second, when I was eleven or twelve, involved getting some stitches in a gash above my left eye. The final crash involved a blackout, a deep gash inside my mouth, and several days missed from school while I recovered. Collectively, they have all been topped.
Today, I was sprayed with pepper spray (OC spray, or O-Cap as we call it). It rates as the single worst experience of my life. Worse than all three bike incidents together. I think having been rejected in love (particularly by my ex-fiancée, among others) rates up there because of the long-term emotional and psychological effects, but I’m torn as to which I would choose if I had to experience one again. It’s five hours later, and I’ve had a shower: My eyes still burn, and my head aches.
Police are regularly subjected to pepper spray as part of their training. This gives them a sense of what it does — the idea being that they will be more judicious in its use. Since I am being trained to augment the base security force, I am being given the two-week summary of police training.
Here’s a earful of what I heard this afternoon:
SEAMAN JONES: AAAGH! O my God! O God! O God! [kicks at brick wall] Unn, unn, unn!
SEAMAN SMITH: Ernnn! Oh! Ow! Oh, f——! Unnn!
SEAMAN DAVIS: Aaagh! Hey man, it’s gonna be alright, just tough it out! Unnn!
SEAMAN SMITH: SHUT UP, man! Don’t F——ing talk to me! Just SHUT THE F—— UP! Aaagh!
ME: Unnn!
[SEAMAN JACKSON SNIFFLES IN THE BACKGROUND, AND WHIMPERS:]
SEAMAN JACKSON: It hurts, it hurts. O God! Oh, f——! It hurts!
SEAMAN SMITH: Oh, sh——! Aaagh!
ME: [prying eyes open with fingers] Unnn! Aah! O holy Jesus! Lord, have mercy!
It was exactly like a battle scene or something, except there was no blood, no corpses. There were certainly no sailors with vacant stares in their eyes! I think I understand a little of what it meant physically for our Lord and the early martyrs to suffer some of the torments like scourging, crucifixion, burning at the stake.
Or maybe this is divine retribution for that steak last Monday?