A couple of months ago, I had a condition that required a week's worth of prednisone. Not a particularly pleasant experience. But one side-effect that was rem

A couple of months ago, I had a condition that required a week's worth of prednisone. Not a particularly pleasant experience. But one side-effect that was remarkable, to me: The decades of accumulated aches and pains "went away" while I was on it. A chance to observe, through the sort of light haze the drug left me in, just how much and varied the discomfort was that had accumulated. My primary response to the question of how to control pain, remains: Pro-active health care and preventative medicine and practice. No, it won't stop all cases, but those we can prevent, we should. And currently, too often don't. Too much is focused on "the future." The child that will be. The society we will create. The career we will -- hope to -- have. Until a primary focus is on the present, and taking care of what is at hand, my support for some "future promise" is limited. Among other reasons, because if you aren't healthy and able, you'll have less chance of building it. Or hanging onto it. Or enjoying it. I'm all for taking care of ourselves -- individually and as a society -- for the future. But that action takes place in the present. Until I see a party exercising this -- demonstrating it through actions -- my buy-in is limited. P.S. I guess I went kind of OT, here. I just see so much needless, preventable pain, these days. I really hope for better pain management for those who have pain. And I don't see having it as some "fault" that invariably could have been "avoided." But I see a lot that could be avoided. Steps that could be taken, by communities and society -- but aren't.