Hi, James!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

JB>  Recollecting my Junior-High English studies, next we go
JB>  to "1B i, 1B ii, 1B iii..." Shoot girl... We should have
JB>  started at the Roman numerals. <-;


         Glad to hear you were paying attention in English class...
[chuckle]. Yes, if we had done that we'd be able to subdivide further. 
We're not writing formal essays here, however, and we can always change the
subject line when it becomes unwieldy.  Seems to me one of the signs of a
good conversation is that it keeps expanding, and Fidomail lends itself
very well to expansion....  :-))



JB>  Like I've been told, pain can be such a subjective thing.


         One's perception of pain can be, yes....  :-)



JB>  I used to think I was pretty tolerant of the day-to-day
JB>  aches after a day in the yard or behind a hammer, which
JB>  probably makes my situation more tolerant than it could
JB>  be. Who's to say?


         Maybe you're better able to tolerate pain than some other folks
might be because you learned from these experiences.  What did you find
most helpful in such situations... a feeling of accomplishment, a
reasonable certainty that the present discomfort wouldn't last forever, a
long soak in the bathtub, or??



JB>  How could I tell someone something I knew wasn't true?


         I like your honesty....  :-)



JB>  I doubt they didn't think Valium was addictive, but
JB>  their convoluted definitions of physical versus mental
JB>  addiction likely let them sleep at night.


         I guess it was about thirty years ago that my friend began taking
the stuff, and psychological addiction wasn't generally understood at the
time.  I notice also that some people are mistrustful, even today, of
whatever can't be measured & quantified in concrete terms.  Maybe
addictions didn't seem real to such individuals unless they could see a
physical result... e.g. people needed more of the same drug after awhile if
they were using it routinely... or maybe they equated psychological
addiction with weakness of character, and therefore considered it beyond
the scope of the medical profession.  I got caught by the same line of
reasoning in a different way.  I didn't know until a decade later what was
wrong with my spine because the family doctor was quite convinced the pain
was "all in my head".  By the time I was old enough to pay my own
medical bills, however, I'd realized he said things like that when he
didn't know what was wrong... so I consulted another doctor.  The x-rays
clearly showed that my spine was twisted & my tailbone was broken.  But
maybe the family doctor slept soundly, in blissful ignorance, because he'd
never looked at my spine....  :-/



JB>  Not until a sinus infection (Often an indication
JB>  of malignancy in a host.... Namely, me! :-) and
JB>  two *very* reluctant wisdom tooth extractions did
JB>  I ever taste a Tylenol 3.


         To put it in a nutshell, my experience is very similar....  :-)



AH>  He's the moderator

JB>  Oh oh... What'd I do now? 


         We post the rules on or around the 28th, that's all....  :-)



JB>  The trick is to leave them wanting to hear more.
JB>  Just like any good performance. Maybe like any
JB>  good instruction, also.


         Yes.  I could say a lot more about any number of things I write
about in SURVIVOR, but I'd like to see some hands waving in the air
first... [grin].




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+