Is it worth the pain?

I saw this quote recently attributed to Bob Marley …

“If she’s amazing, she won’t be easy.  If she’s easy, she won’t be amazing.  If she’s worth it, you won’t give up.  If you give up, you’re not worthy.  Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.”

Very powerful and very meaningful for me.  She has not been easy and I didn’t give up.  The chase was long and there were many times that I could have given up, but I never did.  From my first attempts to meet her on-line it took months to get her out for a date and from our first date until we finally made this relationship real was probably a period of five or six years.   And while I never thought I would be hurt as I have been, I can truly say I believe that this is the one who is worth suffering for.  I can’t imagine my world without her by my side.

One of my favorite songs by my favorite band has chorus in it that has always spoken to me as well …

“I don’t believe in love
I never have, I never will
I don’t believe in love
It’s never worth the pain that you feel” – I Don’t Believe in Love by Queensryche

I believe that perhaps for true love, for real love, for deep and meaningful and unconditional love … it really is worth the pain that you feel.

Ruminations on honesty and trust

If falsehood, like truth, had but one face, we would be more on equal terms.  For we would consider the contrary of what the liar said to be certain.  But the opposite of truth has a hundred thousand faces and an infinite field. – Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

Some people will not tolerate such emotional honesty in communication. They would rather defend their dishonesty on the grounds that it might hurt others. Therefore, having rationalized their phoniness into nobility, they settle for superficial relationships. – Author Unknown

Someday a computer will give a wrong answer to spare someone’s feelings, and man will have invented artificial intelligence. – Robert Brault

We tell lies when we are afraid… afraid of what we don’t know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger. – Tad Williams

Every lie is two lies — the lie we tell others and the lie we tell ourselves to justify it. – Robert Brault

I love you, and because I love you, I would sooner have you hate me for telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies. – Pietro Aretino