PAIN- A mere Luxury.

I approached the gentleman at the small shop, to get my ears pierced, scared, out of my wits, of the pain that I would have to face. My best friend stood in front of me holding both my hands, so that I can clutch them as hard as I like and scream ,when it pained, as much as my lungs would allow. So, I am sitting on the small stool and I choose the silver stud that I want on the upper lobe of both my ears. And as i am sitting, the gentleman just pierces it through my skin, and I let out this loud scream, for everyone in the arcade to stare at. And I don't know what happened but suddenly I have these pictures of hungry starving malnutritioned kids in the world, women, victims of domestic violence, sexual assaults and what not! I have these screams of pain of cancer patients going through the horrors of chemotherapys and radiations, to get few more days to live, than they have. The pain of teenage mothers dying during child birth, the pain of female infanticide, the pain of a mother loosing her chind all because she gave birth to another mother? A child who doesn't even understand 'GENDER', is ruthlessly killed, all because she was a little unwanted princess instead of a sought after prince? When these pictures came in my mind, something just spoke to me, that these are the people going through pain, only to survive, and hence isn't pain a mere luxury for me right now? I'm getting my ears pierced, and I'm screaming because of the pain... really?? I couldn't be more of a drama queen than this. And the next thing I know, when the man pierces my  other ear, I feel nothing, because the pain seems nothing. When I thought of how many people are going to die today, because they won't have access to the little things that are mere utilitarian for us, but for them it could be luxuries. I realised how lucky I am to have pain as a luxury, and I counted my blessings, and thanked the invisible force that binds us all together on this earth, for all that I have and most of all giving me pain, not as a way of life as it is to many helpless people and kids in his world, but as a luxury.