I'm rambling, rambling

It's that season again when the weather gets bone cold. And the advance of my age is going forward since I notice now the phenomena of actually feeling weather. What that means dear youngsters is that my big toe, which apparently is being affected by gout the disease of kings, begins to hurt as soon as it gets around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. I suppose my fluids are being frozen? Or is it my joints that are crystallizing at such low temperatures? At any rate, I can also tell when it's going to rain by the way my toe hurts. I remember something about the pressure of the atmosphere having an effect on the physiology of joints. For the life of me however, I don't remember nor do I know how that phenomena can be translated physically.

While taking a neuroanatomy class I learned that the receptors for cold sensation and the receptors for hot sensation are basically derived from the same type of receptors. That's why when you put your hand on something very cold, the pain that you feel is the same pain as when you put your finger on top of a candle flame. Unfortunately, I hated neuroanatomy because it was pure pain of memorization. The case studies that were presented were so trite and the professor was so perfunctory that it was absolute hell. Added to the pain of that semester was the fact that I was also taking physics. Can someone say a nosedive in my grades? How about my one and only C in college. It still hurts somewhat that I got a C. But hey, I never did like physics.

Which all brings me to love and the pain associated with that. Funny how I associate love and pain together during my undergraduate years. For that matter, love and pain go with the graduate years too in case you are wondering.

I don't know how you deal with the pain in your heart when faced with unrequited love. It is not quite physiological, but not completely psychological either. I do remember that pain was present in my heart. I also remember that pain or the presence of pain was in my psyche. It hurt to breathe. It also hurt to think. I suppose that the pain that is present while you are in the midst of dealing with a rejection is something that only time can heal.

As a biologist, the only explanation I can say is that the dendritic tree which was formed at the moment of rejection has lost some of its connection. The hormonal lows associated with the rejection have also passed and that is why you eventually recover. In general, if you get over the hurt and don't become psychotic and bitter like most people do, then you come out well adjusted and able to deal with a wide range of strange and foolish people.