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mystification
Jun. 18th, 2012 12:56 pmGentleman Caller is sick. He had a bit of a cough last night and woke up this morning in full sniffle and with his chest feeling kind of gummy and still coughing, so he took a sick day and stated his intention to relax and play video games. I of course offered to bring him cough syrup and tissues and soup, the latter two of which he had no objections to, but the first he kind of went "anh". Doesn't generally want to take drugs unless they're medically necessary. "But it will help you feel better," I said. "But I'm sick," he said. "If I feel better how will I know when I am better?"
... This is not the dumbest reasoning I've ever heard, but I can't fathom the willingness to suffer when remedies are available. (Though that's not precisely true; I often only take something for a headache or similar as a last resort, preferring non-pharmaceutical remedies when that's an option. Himself points out that pain is a signal to stop doing something, which is not untrue - stop holding your hand in that fire, stop twisting your knee around that way - but my point is, it could also be a signal that you should have stopped sooner, so once you've stopped doing the thing that hurt, it's not wrong to make use of a pain reliever until the leftover pain recedes to the point where you don't need it anymore.) Basically in this case the answer is, he's not suffering the way I would be. If I stay home from work with a sniffly cough, I am wrapped in a blanket on the couch with hot tea and hot soup, looking listlessly at the TV when I'm not napping, swigging cough syrup directly from the bottle. He is ... taking it slightly easy, MMORPGing at his computer, occasionally coughing (me: it's not good for your throat to cough so much!), and sniffling rather than blowing his nose. "Your sinuses and your lungs are full of crud," I said. "Don't you want to get it out of there?" "That's not going to help as long as I'm still making more," he says.
I am floored by this. "Of course it will, because you'll have made room for more crud by getting rid of this crud!" He feels he won't make more crud as long as the present crud holds its position. Which by him may be true - or, if he does make more, it apparently won't make him feel more miserable. Me, I've got to get the old crud cleared out early and often because the new crud builds up behind it until it feels like my face is going to explode. Tiny narrow sinuses strike again.
... This is not the dumbest reasoning I've ever heard, but I can't fathom the willingness to suffer when remedies are available. (Though that's not precisely true; I often only take something for a headache or similar as a last resort, preferring non-pharmaceutical remedies when that's an option. Himself points out that pain is a signal to stop doing something, which is not untrue - stop holding your hand in that fire, stop twisting your knee around that way - but my point is, it could also be a signal that you should have stopped sooner, so once you've stopped doing the thing that hurt, it's not wrong to make use of a pain reliever until the leftover pain recedes to the point where you don't need it anymore.) Basically in this case the answer is, he's not suffering the way I would be. If I stay home from work with a sniffly cough, I am wrapped in a blanket on the couch with hot tea and hot soup, looking listlessly at the TV when I'm not napping, swigging cough syrup directly from the bottle. He is ... taking it slightly easy, MMORPGing at his computer, occasionally coughing (me: it's not good for your throat to cough so much!), and sniffling rather than blowing his nose. "Your sinuses and your lungs are full of crud," I said. "Don't you want to get it out of there?" "That's not going to help as long as I'm still making more," he says.
I am floored by this. "Of course it will, because you'll have made room for more crud by getting rid of this crud!" He feels he won't make more crud as long as the present crud holds its position. Which by him may be true - or, if he does make more, it apparently won't make him feel more miserable. Me, I've got to get the old crud cleared out early and often because the new crud builds up behind it until it feels like my face is going to explode. Tiny narrow sinuses strike again.
