Let the Pain Go

Nathaniel: "You're not even grateful, are you?"

David: "Grateful? For the worst f*cking experience of my life."

Nathaniel: "You hang onto your pain like it means something, like it's worth something. Well, let me tell you, it's not worth sh*t. Let it go...(looks up to the sky) Infinite possibilities and all he can do is whine."

David: "Well what am I supposed to do?"

Nathaniel: "What do you think? You can do anything you lucky bastard, you're alive! What's a little pain compared to that?"

David: "It can't be that simple."

Nathaniel: "What if it is?"

- Six Feet Under. HBO television series Season 4 finale.

A Seed of Growth and Liberation

"Think of some of the painful events in your life. For how many of them are you grateful today, because thanks to them you changed and grew? Here is a simple truth of life that most people never discover. Happy events make life delightful but they do not lead to self-discovery and growth and freedom. That privilege is reserved to the things and persons and situations that cause us pain.

Every painful event contains in itself a seed of growth and liberation."

- Anothony De Mello. The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of... Image Books, 1995. pg 157

Don't Run

“Time don’t go back, it goes forward
Can’t run from the pain, go towards it
Some days can’t be explained what caused it.”
- Jay-Z “Lost One” from the album “Kingdom Come”

Sometimes running away from pain doesn’t help us. We need to confront pain and deal with it. We can’t focus on the past and we can’t dwell on the bad things in life. This quote and verse from an excellent song is inspiring because of that.

Life Begins with Lust

“Pain begins at the point of trust
like life begins at the very flash point of lust.”
- The Odds “We’ll Talk” from the album “Good Weird Feeling.”

There is a lot of debate about the exact start of life. Abortion is a heated topic that evokes strong emotions from a variety of perspectives. That’s why when I heard this lyric it really stuck with me.

We can debate over scientific and religions points of view about this subject but I don’t think we can say it any plainly or more concretely than this song. Lust is crucial component of life. Although, not every instance of lust creates life, those few occasions that do make this saying all the more potent.

Truth in Joking

“Off-comments are, often, painfully on.” - Chase March journal entry September 11, 2004

I wrote that line in a journal a few years back. I had gotten into a bit of a disagreement with my girlfriend. I was trying to be witty and funny and made what I thought was an off-comment. I didn’t mean anything by it. It was only a joke.

She told me that, “there is a lot of truth in joking.”

Maybe she was right. I think sometimes when people make jokes, they might be trying to be hurtful or speak their mind. I wasn’t trying to do that. I was trying to get her to laugh. I loved her laugh. But I ended up offending her and I never wanted to do that.

What she said has stuck with me. My quotation from my journal has stayed with me as well. That is why it has become an entry in my commonplace book.