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CommunityWWW.MSINGIAFRIKAMAGAZINE.COM | we tell the true afrikan story 26everything%u201d It is the same with pain and suffering. It is what we do with the pain that matters everything. In today%u2019s feel good and painless culture, this is a concept that is hard for many to contemplate less comprehend. Imbuing pain with meaning makes it no longer pain, but a necessary part of our experience. Victor Frankl a long time prisoner in Nazi concentration camps went through brutal cruelties and torture. He came to believe that %u201cHe who has a why to live can bear with almost any how%u201d He was able to bear the most horrendous pains in the concentration camps because he drew meaning in the pain. Thus according to him even when one is confronted with an incurable disease, such as an inoperable cancer, just then, one is given a chance to actualize the highest value, to fulfil the deepest meaning. Pain ceases to be pain to who has given it meaning and a purpose. Many women have testified to the deep joy and spiritual upliftment they have gained from exploring the full wonder and pain of natural childbirth. Many people including I M%u016bk%u016by%u016b, testify to the deep awakening of something beyond verbal description of venturing into this wilderness of even a little pain like a toothache. Of cause there is for everybody an unbearable pain, a threshold or precipice, but it is now a proven scientific fact that one lowers this threshold of unbearable pain every time one takes a pain killer. It would be sad that after such powerful lessons from their culture the G%u012bk%u016by%u016b were to arrive at the point where the USA is today %u2013 a national epidemic and crisis of pain killer addiction.What is drug addiction or substance abuse? Isn%u2019t it a failure to confront emotional pain and the seeking of an artificial bliss through drugs? Isn%u2019t it a running away from a life challenge and taking the easy way out? Confronting challenges and dealing with them is much harder than just running away. Drugs make life easy. Ultimately they deny life the chance to an exploration of depth and meaning.Did not the Hebrew prophet lead by example by embracing pain, and by using it as a tool to spiritual salvation? The man of sorrows met pain unflinchingly. The G%u012bk%u016by%u016b boys of old likewise learnt that there are times when one is called upon to bite the bullet, when one is called to embrace the crown of thorns. By bravely embracing %u2013 not merely bearing %u2013 the crown of thorns, it transforms into the crown of salvation, the crown of glory.Kamar%u016b sung that it is good, very good, that the Gikuyu undergo circumcision. K%u016brua ruo, circumcising the pain, is to face the pain unflinchingly and in so doing destroying its power over you.G%u012bk%u016by%u016b k%u016brua, n%u012bwega n%u012bwega m%u016bno!