Death and Taxes

    If the old saying is true, about the years that you live and the ones that you simply endure, then 2002, 1982, and 1976 are a few of those years that I  barely endured.
    Its a simple truth that physical wounds heal faster, and sometimes better than emotional ones. Emotional wounds can take decades to heal, if they ever do. The death  of a close relative, father, sister, grandparent, or friend, or simply a divorce. And take it from me, some of those unseen wounds can be just as fatal, I‘ve been a witness to that too. 
    I’ve heard the story of Groucho Marx, in one of his last interviews, he was asked what he would do different if he had to do it all over again. And it’s said that He replied, “Are you insane? I’d rather eat a bullet!” He wasn’t going through that all over again. Burring his family and suffering everything that he had been through all of his 90 + years. He said “I wouldn’t do it, and thank god you can‘t make me!”  I tend to agree with him! But unfortunately, some things are unavoidable.
    Death and taxes.  
We all carry the scares of battles that we’ve fought. Some you can see, and some you can’t. And the old saying of “that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is a load of crap! Sometimes it can leave you maimed, and  crippled, bloody and lying unconscious in a ditch with no help coming. Or leave your psyche with the craters of emotional battles, unseen by the casual observer, till they accidentally step on one of the buried emotional landmines tucked away, deep in a memory. Sometimes completely unaware of the emotional tripwire that they stumbled across in their walk down the path of casual conversations.
    I guess the trick is, not just to survive your wounds, but understand that others have suffered them as well. And if you want help, while lying in that ditch, then be willing to crawl down in there to help someone else in their time of need. Understand that people are going to step across a few of your emotional landmines. So tread carefully yourself.
And maybe this year will be one that you “live”, and don’t have to simply endure.