What Thorns Will I Choose In Life?

How does that Poison song go?

“Every rose has its thorn, just like every night has its dawn, just like every cowboy, sings his sad, sad song, every rose has its thorn”

Anybody reading it while humming it in your head? Song’s a classic.

Life always makes sure to give us our good dose of good and bad, sometimes the good simply does not last enough, and the bad is everlasting and changes our lives dramatically. Isn’t it indeed curious that our biggest metamorphosis always comes during our darkest times? Initially a good metamorphosis penetrates perniciously in our psyche, we get sleepless nights, cold sweats, tears on our pillows, even our mattress cannot hold onto our emotional weight and overreach anymore. Ah, if these four walls could talk, things they’ve heard that nobody will ever dare to fathom in bare comprehension. We call pain despicable. We call it our enemy. We call it abuse. Egregious even. But is it? I will go against our societal high tides on this one. I, hereby, Johnny Nezha, declare pain to be the most liberating eye opening factor to the dangers of life, illusions of society, the heartbreaks, disappointments, stone walls, obstructions, sabotages, greed, hate, envy, jealousy, ignorance…

My personal motto has always been work for the best, but prepare for the worst. Because with the best, you can always deal, in fact it’s actually an enjoyable process, it’s no rocket science, but mark my words, there’s no end to misery, and we are never prepared enough for things to go down south and quick, even if we think we are. Unfortunately for us, misery likes company. We don’t know what we don’t know and this is what should keep us always on our toes. There’s no beating around the bush, and there’s no intent of appeasement here whatsoever. It is what it is. This is life.

This is rather blasé you might say. Nothing new here. Well, yes & no. Yes, I am sure you are aware and you might “know” that this is a hard truth, but you don’t act upon it so what’s the point of knowing if you do not understand proactively. So no! If you lack insightful permanent incorporation of such knowledge, then what is it good for? To be an elusive legend? Allegory? We all reserve one privilege in our era nowadays, that being the pristine gift of choice. We all agree on the reasoning that there is no escaping here. We will be hit with something or someone that will make us feel a special kind of way. For better or worse. Even our forevers change. Because the forevers should be exclaimed at the end of the journey, not forecasted at the beginning honey-mooney phases of a venture or initiations of new friendships/relationships. That’s why we set ourselves up and we throw gasoline to the fire. The California wildfires pale in comparison to the fiery pain you feel inside your chest when you are really going through it, and under the smoky moonlight, you ask yourself, why me? Why now? Instead, you should be cogitating on:

1. I cannot avoid pain, so the least I can do right now, can I choose what to suffer from?

2. I cannot choose what to suffer from if I do not have clear goals and objectives, thus, by proxy, enforcing them harder than Border Patrol is just not feasible yet.

3. I will never find refuge in confusion, and I need to understand that I hold way greater power about my life than what I give me credit for. I do, therefore I am.

Precise planning is key to mental peace. It’s paramount to clarity. Depression is caused by inaction, and when idle, that’s when your demons tantalize you the most. When at your weakest and at your most vulnerable, that’s your sweet spot to catalyze everything to a 180 degree sudden turn. Do not fall prey to sensationalized optimism, but fatalistic fear monger is not the answer either. Things just are. So let it be. We have been lied to. From our parents, family, popular culture, society, friends, everything around us is lying to us, not because they want to, but because they themselves are seeking without results those same statements they are trying to speak into reality in vain.

If this article comes off as too callous for you, then maybe you are not ready yet, but when you are, you’ll understand why I say what I say.

I guess that’s why they say “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” It does. And it hurts. Pain is inevitable, but suffering is 100% of the time a choice.