Fixing what's bent
It starts with discomfort: that sharp feeling that something is out of place. It may be irritation, a burning sensation, something that doesn't bother you most of the time. Until you push yourself a little harder, stretch a little further, and then... it hurts.
But that's okay: you don't have to stretch all the time, do you? Can't you live your life without doing that one thing that isn't exactly right? Yes, you can, so there you go: carry on as usual. Some more uptight people will quickly point out the risk you run of getting used to the situation. They're annoying. Can't they see that it's so simple, just don't look in that direction, and there you go, problem solved? And if you get used to it, so what? There are worse things. Given the alternatives, you're doing pretty well.
The ability to tolerate discomfort, even self-inflicted, may seem like a blessing, but it's an evil that only gets worse. The devilish brain always finds excuses, always finds a little story to tell itself that seems to make sense.
Because, like a tree that grows crooked under the force of the wind, with its center of mass increasingly off balance until one day the trunk gives way and the tree breaks, the individual who accepts a discomfort here, another there, and gets used to functioning with them, soon finds himself completely crooked. Unrecognizable, perhaps.
Until the system cracks. And the crack comes with a bang, because there is such a thing as physics: the set of inflexible properties inherent in systems, because that's how they are, and that's that. The maximum resistance of a tendon, the breaking point of concrete, the operating capacity of an ICU, the number of hours a nurse needs to sleep, or the number of calories that sustain a human being per day are what they are. When you reach the limit, there is no forgiveness. Talking about the “laws” of physics at this point makes perfect sense.
Repairs that aren't real repairs bend little by little, but when they snap, they hurt for real. At least the pain forces an end to the state of denial.
Life is the art of self-organization, for better or for worse, but tolerance has its limits. Brain and body, society and economy adapt, adjust, and settle according to uses and abuses—but with too much abuse, one day they break.
Fortunately, on the other side of the crack there is physical therapy, medicine, nursing, the shipyard, the CPI, the recovery committee, the ballot box. Everything that is not physical can be fixed—as long as the damage is recognized.