Stories, such as this one in today's NY Times, just absolutely baffle my mind. It's amazing that we can put people on the moon, or embed trillions of copper wires into silicon and somehow make a processor, or how we construct buildings over a thousand and a half feet tall; yet PEOPLE, actual human beings can die in this world in miserable pain without medicine just kills the hope you have for this world.

I can't contend that I've experienced pain as miserable as those in the end stages of AIDS, or those with open wounds and infections, or beautiful souls with cancerous tumors that have exploded through their skin. But I've personally seen pain bad enough to see stars, to double my blood pressure; yet I ABSOLUTELY cannot imagine having to endure that pain or pain far worse for months and years when I could barely handle it for minutes before the pain killers kicked in.