Pain and pleasure

Just in case anyone gets the wrong idea here, let me say right away that I am not in any way a masochist. I certainly do not enjoy experiencing pain at any level.
However, today, on a rare "day off," I had two experiences which combined both pain and pleasure.
One was a pain that led to pleasure: the other a pleasure that led to pain - although in both cases I am actually exaggerating and overstating the case (something we preachers are prone to do.)
In the first place, this morning I had the stitches removed from the post-op wound on my back. Not a particularly pleasant experience and yet one that I was really looking forward to quite eagerly (not in anticipation of the pain, of course, but in the expectation that it would mark another important step to full recovery.)

The other was a very pleasant walk this afternoon from New Lanark to Bonnington Linn. The views along the River Clyde are quite spectacular, even though there is far less water in the river than there would normally be at this time of year. The pain comes at the end of the walk when you have to climb back up the steep hill to the car park at New Lanark!

A few years back it was reported on the BBC that some scientists had established that pain and pleasure were more closely linked than it had generally been realised before. (although the Dutch religious philosopher Spinoza- regarded at the time as a heretic- had been making similar claims away back in the 17th Century.)
Recently I started reading a book by Antonio Damasio entitled "Looking for Spinoza." I didn't get very far into the book before I had to lay it aside. It is a pretty busy time of year with not much free time for reading, but I think I'll have another go over the summer.

* the top photograph shows the bell tower at New Lanark, and the lower photograph is of Corra Linn.