Attribution: Photo by Henry Fraczek on Unsplash
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the results from the keeper’s right shoulder MRI showed, in Dr. Warbasse’s assessment, that there are rips in his rotator cuff and frayed muscles and the joint is generally a mess, and it is unusual that the keeper is not writhing in pain and demanding surgical relief.
With the pain tolerance levels of a baby, the keeper would indeed be seeking relief, but by favoring his right arm activity–combing his hair with his left hand for example, he suffers only an occasional reminder that yet another part of him is wearing out.
In the case of his rusted-out right shoulder the blame must partially go to a lifetime of whipping a flyrod back and forth, often casting into the wind and then doing it again and again to put the fly just upstream of a feeding trout.
When the keeper forgets about his shoulder limitation and reaches up with his right arm for a coffee cup, the stab of pain translates to the memory of a western fishing trip with son Larry and grandsons Nick and Tony, days on the Wolf River with John Lawton, nights on the Mecan when the Mayflies were thick and the big trout were hungry……
Would that be considered “positive pain?”
The keeper will ask Phyllis who has known such “positive” pain as birthing children.
Photo by Bill Stokes