Learning to Deal With Pain

BY JACK GRAY

I have been captivated by some of the stories of American outlaws. They lived and rode from about the end of the Civil War in 1865 into the 1880’s. Some of them were men of unique character. Whether your admired them or not, you never doubted that they were Men; and that it was to be spelled with a capital “M”.

Most would agree that they were not criminals in the sense we use that term today. They were more the product of their times. Some were men with a high sense of honor. They had unswerving loyalty toward their friends. When they gave their word it meant more than an oath taken in a courtroom today. That is why we are so intrigued by the stories of their lives. Yet, admittedly, in reading about them it is almost impossible to know how much has been tainted by myth and folklore in contrast to cold, hard facts.

To understand them at all you must know something of their times. For example, it was a time when banks and railroads were not considered friends of the common man. It was also a time when there were very few checks and balances in the justice system, so that some of the best-known lawmen were only a short step from being outlaws themselves. Some were even more harsh and cruel than the men they chased. Many of the outlaws could not have survived as long as they did without the sympathy and protection of many private citizens.

I grew up on a rented farm in northeastern Arkansas, not a long way from the canebrakes of Missouri where Frank and Jesse James got their start. Would it surprise you to know that almost 100 years later, their names were spoken with respect? People still despised the man who shot Jesse in the back. Their ballads still spoke of “the dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard” (the alias that Jesse was using at the time). This shows something of the kind of man they thought he was.

In the midst of all this, I came across two stories that touched on the same theme of dealing with pain: Jesse James, unlike many others, was seldom wounded during his years as an outlaw, but once he was. After months of convalescence, he was attending a frontier dance when he began to be in a great deal of distress. He went outside and opened the wound himself. He drained about a full pint of corruption out of his own chest…and went back to the party. Cole Younger and a number of others rode hundreds of miles to rob the bank in Northfield, Minnesota, but news of their coming preceded them and they were met with an ambush there. It is said that Cole was shot 21 times, but still managed to get on his horse and ride away. After a manhunt made of up 900 men, he was finally captured. The thing that caught my attention, however, was that after 11 ½ years in prison, he was released with parts of seventeen bullets still in him! (If you know the misery that even a splinter or thorn can cause until it is removed, do you suppose he ever had a comfortable moment?) Yet after his release he went on a lecture tour, and made a pretty good living making speeches about his exploits as an outlaw.

HERE ARE MY OBSERVATIONS CONNECTED WITH RUNNING: WE FIND IT HARD TO IDENTIFY WHAT PAIN REALLY IS. Discomfort is not pain. Even exhaustion is not pain. Pain is an injury that will not let us run. When people go to a doctor today with a hangnail and to the emergency room because of a stubbed toe…when many pain relievers are readily available over-the-counter, we cannot even imagine Civil War soldiers having limbs amputated with no anesthetic of any kind. We must admit that our threshold for pain is very low. IT IS NOT SMART TO TRY AND RUN THROUGH PAIN. Discomfort, yes, but pain, NO. A good rule of thumb is, if it gets worse as you run, back off. Give yourself time to heal. NEVER MASK YOUR PAIN. It is there for a purpose. This means do not take pain relievers before you run. This can invite serious injury.

The best advice is: If you have pain (caused by running), DON’T RUN. Then return slowly on about the third day after the pain leaves. BUT, if you get up stiff and sore, discouraged and looking for excuses: Kick yourself out the door. You will be amazed at how much better you can feel after a good run! Sometimes the only thing that hurts worse than running is not running!