The Idea of an Essay, Volume 4

88 The Idea of an Essay: Volume 4 be better if we never had to feel a cut on our leg or the excruciating pain of an exploded appendix?” The answer is no, life wouldn’t be better. The pain sourcebook, a guide to how pain works, states that when a person get injured, the nerves in the body start signaling the brain that something is wrong, and the pain felt is the body’s way of informing that person of the problem (Shannon 6-7). But this is not an unnecessary action, it is protection. Leprosy is an excellent example of why people should be thankful for pain. Shumet, Demissie, and Bekele describe leprosy in their article on the disease as a bacterial infection that stops the ability to feel pain (313- 314). People with leprosy are usually missing fingers because they couldn’t feel the difference between cutting vegetables and cutting digits off. They have burn marks all over their bodies from when they leaned against a stove and couldn’t tell that their hand was on fire. Many graves are filled by people with the disease who didn’t know that their appendix had burst because they felt no discomfort, and therefore did nothing about it. Their world is a dangerous place. Dr. Paul Brand talks about his surgical work with lepers in his book The Gift Nobody Wants. He witnessed firsthand what it is like to go through life without pain, and he saw how the painless life of his patients slowly destroyed them, as they lost fingers limbs, and eventually their lives. When his first grandson was born, he remembers thanking God that the child cried after being pricked in the finger, showing that he felt the jab of the needle (196-197). This baby had the gift nobody wanted; pain. Pain that comes from punishment can be a blessing too, because it keeps us from sin. Punishment is one of the best ways for humans learn their lessons, as is seen throughout many passages in the bible, like Zacharias who lost his speech for doubting God. Many people, like authors Straus, Douglas, and Medeiros who wrote the book The Primordial Violence, believe that punishment does not help people learn lessons but instead makes them more violent and rebellious (81-92). But common sense can prove their belief wrong. If a parent sits a child down and tells him all the reasons why painting the living room in chocolate was a bad thing to do, but does not punish them, the child will see that they can get away with it and will do it again when their parents are gone. But if a parent sits a child down, not on the coach for a talk, but instead on their knee to have a spanking, that kid will think twice about