numb

In fact, pleasure is necessary, especially for the regularly tortured Valentin who seems to have been numb for a long time.

Mr. Leguizamo eases up on the ferociously funny clowning at which he is so expert to emphasize Nelson’s frantic desperation to avoid having to admit he has failed his family, numbing his anxieties with booze.

“My back goes numb and I rush out of my room,” said Yen, who is 60, pointing to the spot by an interior wall, beneath a cross, where she takes cover.

And I was just like trying to numb everything out because I was forced to just be there with myself.

But sometime over this last winter — that numbing, hoary stretch between mid-February and March — I decided this might be the year to reclaim a bit of seasonal delight.