Hammering Your Finger Story

Story title: Hammering Your Finger 
By: Bert Balling

    One day, the British author Hilaire Belloc was walking along the docks in New York City when he saw an African American nailing together wooden boxes. Every now and then the man would hammer his finger and then wince with pain for some minutes. Belloc did not believe what he was seeing and so he walked over to the workman and asked, "I beg you pardon, but could you tell me why you keep hitting you finger with hammer?"

"Well," drawled the old man, "I don't reckon you whites would understand something like this."
     But the Britisher kept asking and then got this explanation: " You bet it hurts me when I hammer my finger. But I do it on purpose. It gives me so much pleasure in Between times, just to know that I'm not in pain continuously, as some sick people are."
     The author shook his head in disbelief and then on a second thought, came up with this personal observation, "Maybe he's trying to tell me to be more appreciative of other people's sufferings."