The Pain...I Can Feel It

I am jealous of Claudia's innocent view of pain. She says that her mama's "voice was so sweet and her singing-eyes so melty I found myself longing for those hard times..." Hard times? Who wants hard times? She goes on to note that "my mother's voice took all of the grief out of the words and left me with a conviction that pain was not only endurable, it was sweet." Pain is sweet? I wish.

I am glad that although it seems that Claudia is surrounded by "hard times," she is able to not exaggerate her circumstances and is able to be relieved of her burdens by listening to the joyful music her mom makes. Music is also how Claudia's mother deals with her pain and hard times. She sings them out and away! Oh, the innocence and naivety of children! Pain is sweet? Well she obviously has not been met with enough pain yet. But how can this be? Her mother tends to jump to conclusions and resorts to whippings, her relationship with her mother is more of a child-slave, she does not have a father figure present in her life, she doesn't live in the best of conditions, etc. etc. etc. So how does she compare pain as being sweet? Well maybe because she lives in these circumstances, she views them as normal. There are few things that can be worse about her situation, and so there is not much room for an opportunity of true pain to effect her yet. Well that sounds quite nice. However, I am much more comfortable here in my situation, with my pains, than I would be suffering in her pains which she may deem as normal.