Warning: Contents May be Harmful

Normally, after a long day of work, I like to come home, grind some fresh decaf, and thumb through a stack of magazines while sipping a piece of heaven on earth. Yesterday, however, I ground the wrong beans and wound up wiring myself for the night with a pot of fully caffeinated French roast. I tried reading myself to sleep which made my head ache, I tried Zen breathing, and hyperventilated, so I ended up watching TV. At 1:00 a.m. I came across a show about self-harm -- an interesting insight into the world of cutting, burning and other random abuses. It seemed illogical to me that people would purposefully inflict pain upon themselves. Isn't' grief something most people try to escape -- or are we all harming ourselves in some fashion or other? Does working too much and resting too little constitute self-harm? Is it considered mutilation if material benefits such as money or power are attached? We say things, "I worked my fingers to the bone," or, "I put my blood, sweat and tears into it," yet consider the work par for the course. If life leaves no physical course. If life leaves no physical scars, can we consider it painless.