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Hmmm, does the rollercoaster ride of life allow for objections?

It has been a couple of weeks since I have put up a post. Why? I have been suffering through another of the debilitating back spasms that I seem to have to endure once a year or so. It hurts like hell and makes it impossible to sit at the computer for more than a few minutes or indulge in the nature hikes that I so cherish. I am on the mend now.

I find it particularly frustrating that I have to endure these episodes. I adhere rigidly to a routine of Tuesday morning chiropractic treatments at no small expense. (Multiple treatments for a couple of weeks when I have an episode.) I have a twenty minute routine of stretching and strengthening exercises that I carry out every morning. And yet these episodes keep happening.

If I broke the rules of bad back etiquette – lifting something heavy or bending in the wrong manner – it would be understandable. But once again, all I did was rise from a sitting to a standing position. Then came the sharp, stabbing pain and my low back went in spasm.

I bellowed, let loose a stream of four-letter words and cursed the gods of fate. It does not help one iota to do so. But I cannot help it because I know I will be incapacitated for a couple of weeks or more.

Why me? Why the hell do I have to have this miserable condition? I ask this question repeatedly but the only answer offered is the same: Everyone has something that they have to struggle with at times. Why should you be any different?

And then the lawyers of fate commence with their cross-examination of me:

Would you rather have a migraine headaches or a heart condition or cancer? Well, no, definitely not, thank you very much.

Have you thought about the people who have this same condition but cannot afford the treatments you can? Well, yes, I can see that I am fortunate in that respect.

Who told you that life is always fair and just? No one has ever made that claim. I have lived long enough to understand that reality. But in my defence, being caregiver to an aging parent with medical conditions does rather complicate the equation.

Are you the only one who has obligations to live up to? Is that really a defence to your reaction? Okay, point taken. I withdraw the objection.

Bottom line: Life is a rollercoaster ride through good times and bad. If the good times outnumber the bad times – and they do by a considerable margin – gratitude is the proper attitude.

But the requirement for gratitude notwithstanding, I still resent having to endure these miserable episodes. I reserve that right of objection.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

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Tags:   back spasm · metaphor · Michael Robert DyetNo Comments