Having spent the past week dealing with a throat that went beyond sore to causing serious pain and the inability to swallow, it is nice to be able to eat solid food again. My throat still hurts, but it's a distant feeling compared to Thursday (which was a everytime I planned on swallowing I needed to squeeze something). But there's little point in writing this above paragraph, is there. Pain, like all emotions, is indescribable. However, unlike saying I was so happy, which is usually enough to convey the feeling I wanted because for most people there are not degrees of happiness. Or rather, there are degrees of happiness, just as there are degrees of sadness, but we have words to convey these sentiments. If I wanted express that my happiness was of the calm sort, I could say that I was content. Or, if I had a very intense happy experience, it would be rapturous.

Language is at fault here. There is only one word to describe any sensation from hurt: pain. If I bang my knee against the table, I will feel a slight pain. If the act of swallowing creates a sharp sensation, almost like my throat being crushed between a pair of gears, well then, I obviously feel pain. If a guy I like doesn't call me, I get a pain in my stomach. Do we see a problem here? Pain is used to describe too many things of different degrees with out being a satisfactory description. Do I really want to compare my reaction to a bad movie to the feeling of slamming a finger in a car door? Yet, I will still say "watching that movie was painful" and "my finger feels so painful," and not wonder if I elevate movies to an unrealistic position of importance, or belittle bodily harm by my words.

Things to ponder indeed.