Before and After

They say it took about a year for an eighteenth century sailor to change; exposed to fierce weather, extreme temperatures, poor food, routine lashings, rough characters and the like. His face turned leathery and his hands calloused, his mood grizzled and his personality gruff; his sensitivity to pain, numb. For me it was writing that did it. Hard sentences whose meaning failed me; difficult to spell words, and a keyboard that wore my fingers raw. No more Mr. Nice guy.