6/4/2008

To err is to be human. We all make mistakes, and often times, these very mistakes end up helping to define us as people. Generally speaking, they are best used as learning devices. You learn the lesson and move on. But to dwell upon these mistakes is to set an anchor in time and, in turn, slow or even stop progression. I have a CD somewhere called The String Tribute to Tool. It is a collection of songs by the band Tool covered by a classical string ensemble. On the back of the CD case, it says something about how the message of much of the band's music is that the fastest path to personal advancement is through pain. That thought has been dancing around in the back of my head for years, and to this day, I haven't read many truer statements. Pain is among the greatest of teachers. It's why we don't touch a hot stovetop more than once. Muscle mass is never gained without a proportional amount of physical pain. On a related note, nearly all the great artwork I see was fueled by some kind of pain, whether it was rejection, abuse, distress, depression, or anything else from within the spectrum of negative human emotion. But art is alchemy of the soul. It's all about taking that negativity and transforming it into something unique and beautiful. I've long known this to be true. With the recent turn of events, my long-standing writer's block has been ground into a fine powder. Ideally, we'd all like for everything to be perfect at all times, but without life's little trials and tribulations, we would have no vantage point from which to gauge the happier enjoyable times. If perfection was truly attainable, there would be no contrast, and everything would be taken for granted. Conflict is inevitable. It is merely human nature, but we should all strive to limit it. However, when the willingness to work through it is present on all sides, the very wedge that drives us apart can in the end bring us closer together.