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Pain: A Part of Life "There is much pain that is quite noiseless; and that makes human agonies often a mere whisper in the hurrying existence. There are glances of hatred that stab and raise no cry of murder; robberies that leave man of woman for ever beggared of peace and joy, yet kept secret by the sufferer-committed to no sound except that of low moans in the night, seen in no writing except that made on the face by the slow months of suppressed anguish and early morning tears. Many an inherited sorrow that has marred a life has been breathed into no human ear." George Eliot (1819-80), English novelist, editor. Felis Holt, the Radical, Introduction (1866). What is pain? In the American Heritage Dictionary, pain is referred to as "an unpleasant sensation occurring in varying degrees of severity as a consequence of injury, disease, or emotional disorder." The word is rooted in Middle English, from an Old French piene, from Latin poena, meaning "penalty or pain", and from Greek pointe, meaning "penalty." Pain is a very realistic problem that many individuals face daily. People can wear pain on the outside like a mask, hiding them from the world, but it also can hide deep within them waiting to be freed by some emotional circumstance. Oddly enough, pain is one on the most feared apprehensions in the mind of humans, yet in some situations, is the most rejoiced.
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