I want a story about a king whose son is prophesied to kill him so the king is like “whatever what am I supposed to do, kill my own kid wtf is wrong with you” so he just raises him as normal, doesn’t even tell him about the prophecy, and instead of some convoluted twist of events that leads to the king’s murder the son grows up and when the king is very old and dying and in excruciating pain the kid is just like alright I’mma put him out of his misery.
The king’s son becomes the new king, and is prophesied to defeat evil and bring an age of prosperity. His generals and knights all crack their knuckles but he pretty much ignores them and focuses on strengthening the infrastructure of his kingdom. Forty years later he is old and sick but still hearing his subjects’ grievances, and a general’s like “how will you defeat the prophesied evil now? You’re old and weak.” Another visitor, a teenager fresh out of the kingdom’s public education system, looks at the general like he is an ignoramus. The king eradicated poverty, housed the homeless, taught the ignorant, ended class exploitation by abolishing the nobility and imprisoning the corrupt, and established a highly respected guild of doctors that recently figured out how to cure the plague. There are no brigands because there is enough wealth for everyone to live comfortably; hiding in the woods and taking trinkets from people simply doesn’t make any sense for anyone but the desperate, and the people are not desperate. Evil is a weed, explains the teenager. It grows in cracked roads and crumbling houses and forgotten corners, rooted in indifference and watered by suffering. But the king demands that broken things be mended and suffering people be made well.
No evil lives in this kingdom, says the teenager. It starved to death before I was born.
Every once in a while, when I’m feeling down, I go and look at the notes on this post and they make me feel a lot better. This is the energy I want to carry into 2018.
Chronic pain is pain that is long lasting but does not always need to be present 100% of the time to be considered chronic. To be considered a chronic condition or symptom, it typically has to be present for 3 months or more.
For example, migraines are considered a chronic condition, even though they are (hopefully) not always present. The episodes themselves may be classed as acute attacks, but the condition itself is usually considered chronic as it can be lifelong for a lot of sufferers, even if their symptoms are well managed.
Back pain or knee pain can also be considered chronic, even if it is intermittent and only flares when you over exert yourself. But the thing is, exerting yourself shouldn’t cause that pain to begin with, not if the joint/muscle/area is healthy. A lot of folk don’t realize they’re living with low level chronic pain simply because it’s intermittent and they’ve been conditioned to ignore pain, thinking that if they can power through it’s not serious or necessary to treat (or quite simply, because they can’t afford to go see the doctor for that low level ache that’s always been there.) Which is how a lot of problems can start and manifest later in life as more acute chronic pain that is harder to ignore.
Hopefully that makes sense?
I know some doctors will class it differently, but 3-6 months of pain, even if it’s intermittent, is usually when something becomes classed as chronic, even if it’s “mild”.
{edit} Also thank you! That’s a really sweet thing of you to say 🙂
As a self-respecting Twin Peaks fan seduced by the PNW, I’ve been to Twede’s Cafe, the real-life setting for the Double R Diner, a few times. It breaks my heart that their cherry pie is atrocious. It’s absolutely the worst pie I’ve ever eaten. Logically, I understand that they could sell wedges of cardboard to customers and they would stay comfortably in business (this is hardly hyperbole), but… just think! They could sell good pies. They could sell great pies.
I’ve spoken to people who have gone to Twede’s Cafe and walked away pleased with their slices of cherry pies and my heart has broken for them, over and over. These are people who have never eaten a good pie in all their years and go through life without knowing the taste of pie that’s actually worthwhile. There are pies that spark delight! There are pies you remember! Once you have eaten a real pie, all others taste like sawdust and misery and can only be choked down with a great deal of self-control and determination. I want to take everyone who has ever enjoyed a “pie” at Twede’s Cafe by the hand and lead them into my kitchen for an initiation ritual into self-respect. Do not lose hope. There are good pies out there, waiting for you—they’re real and you can find them if you are patient.
I could give you a recipe but I don’t think it would help. Baking is a science, but making a pie is a spiritual experience. You have to listen to the ingredients as you make it or else it won’t turn out right. In order to bake a good pie, you have to know it before it exists, like a sculpture, or a painting on a canvas. Before you can create a great pie, you must experience pie. I am giving you a quest: accept it, and go forth into the world seeking One Great Pie (you will know it when you meet it), or live forever in the eternal darkness of the forsaken tongue.
