As I lay sleepless due to the throbbing in my joints, I had a very long night to reflect. My screeching nerves decided that Brandon Sanderson got something very right in his novel, Elantris . Pain. Sanderson's protagonist, Prince Raoden, is stricken by the Shaod , a terrible affliction that renders its victims immortal, freakish, and hungry. He is thrown into Elantris, a decaying city whose wonder can no longer gleam through the filth. The Shaod leaves them without a heartbeat. No injury will heal, and the pain of each injury never fades. Eventually, the cumulative agony from hundreds of small injuries, coupled with an unrelenting hunger, drives them mad. For me, it started with low back pain, then constant headaches. Soon my hands were always cold. Then, I broke a bone in my foot from walking crookedly. Most of the time I could ignore it, or at least put it to the back of my mind, but even if I wasn't consciously thinking about the pain, its weight was always t
I went to Montana this summer, though just on the edge (Hiawatha Trail). Great biking. Loved it!
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