Aches and Pains

Everyone gets aches and pains every once in a while, but this train of thought is probably why it took them so long to figure it out in the first place. Because, if a friend comes in on crutches, mentioning a busted knee, when their knee would start hurting the most obvious answer is of course empathy. Or maybe, thinking so hard about the injuries that befall others, to the point that they accidentally overcompensate themselves, leading to a minor strain of their own.  

Of course, it got a little bit harder to justify as time went on. The day would start, and everything would be perfectly normal until out of nowhere a headache set in. And only later would they hear someone complaining about the crippling migraine that they’d had all day. But that could easily be explained away as coincidence.

Really, most people don’t find themselves in areas of acute danger or harm in their lives. The vast majority of the human population may suffer a papercut here or a broken bone there, but they wouldn’t experience any moments where they are surrounded by many people in great amounts of physical pain. Of course, this assumes that the vast majority of the human population are not doctors, or don’t spend their lives in hospitals. Luckily, this is the case.

The real moment they realized it was anything more than coincidence, or an overgrown sense of empathy wasn’t when anyone got hurt, for once. At least, not physically. By this point, the numbers of examples had built up to levels that they had lost track. But then, someone walked into the store, and he was crying. They didn’t even realize it at first, the fact that from their position at the register with their back to the door they began weeping at the same time this man entered. In fact, they didn’t even notice a change in their mood, until later looking backwards. They were sad. Just sad. And they couldn’t pinpoint why, until they looked that man in the eye.