The Pain Aisle

At my local drugstore, the professional disembodied voice on the intercom exhorted me to get a flu shot (I would get a $10 gift card) and warned me that if I have had chicken pox (I have) or am over 62 (I'm not) I need the shingles vaccine. Then she told me about Excedrin Migraine. She sounded more upbeat and enthusiastic about Excedrin Migraine, and talked much longer about it than she did the flu shot or the shingles vaccine.

It was a little distracting. I had decided to go back to being a brunette, which is what I am naturally, and I was there to check out the hair color. I love to change up both my hair styles and my hair color, but it seems I am always happiest when I am a brunette. Not surprising, that being who I am makes me happy, right?

So there I am trying to decide on Medium Brown, Medium Golden Brown, Medium Auburn Brown, or Medium Caramel Brown. You can appreciate, I'm sure, the intense concentration required for this. And she is still talking about Excedrin Migraine, which can be found in the Pain Aisle. The Pain Aisle?! Maybe I heard wrong. Then she said it again. The Pain Aisle. I smiled and looked up at the signs, and in reality the aisle is marked Pain Relief. So it's the Pain Relief Aisle. That sounds better. Who wants to shop from the Pain Aisle? And then I felt a blog post coming on.

I have been extraordinarily blessed with excellent health, so my experiences with physical pain are rather limited. Emotional pain, now I have had some of that, although not as much as many people. But wasn't my pain incidental, something that happened to me because of nasty circumstances beyond my control or mean people? Or, could it be, that I have pushed my cart right up there and shopped from the Pain Aisle? Made some of my own choices?

It started me to thinking about relationships, and the times I have chosen to avoid the immediate pain of confrontation, which I hate. So I would keep my mouth shut, take the path of least resistance and go along to get along. In the short term, it did help me avoid pain. But in the long term? Oh my gosh. Ouch! It's ironic that I do things in the moment to help me avoid a little bit of pain, and then I hurt much worse and for much longer later. Not smart. I need to do something about that, don't you think? I need to stop shopping from the Pain Aisle of life.

Oh, and the hair color? Medium Golden Brown, in case you're wondering.

Susan