I remember the day with the kind of awful clarity you have recalling, say, a car crash you were in.
It was late November 2000. I was staying at a hotel in Austin, Texas, where I was covering the Bush post-election recount drama. I woke up with a piercing pain in my lower back. I'd never before had back pain and it scared me. I would soon learn that my life would be divided by that day. There were the pre-back pain years and the years since that morning.
My back doesn't hurt all the time. I can...
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