No Hay Rosa Sin Espinas

There Is No Rose Without Thorns

Everything that goes up must come down.  If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Never say never.  Love all, trust few.  All wise words easily interchangeable with this dicho.  Their commonality, each warns us about making mistakes in judgment and in life.  Yet regardless of how many times we hear these words, or others, we’re still bound to make mistakes.

Nobody can live life for us and rarely do we really learn from the mistakes of others.

It can’t happen to me, that’s their own fault, I’m not going to make that mistake, this is not the same thing – all excuses we use to rationalize our actions when that pesky little voice in the back of our head is warning us something is not right.  A lot of times it’s just easier to ignore that queasy feeling.  We occupy our time so we don’t have to think about it, and go on with our lives.  The unfortunate fact of the matter is that sooner or later our mistakes will catch up to us. 

Like an unwelcome and unexpected guest, our blunders will waltz into our lives, make themselves comfortable and refuse to leave until we properly deal with all of their ramifications.  Of course the argument could be made that whatever doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger.  And it does, but wouldn’t it be nice if we could have a radar of sorts that would tell us when we were about to make a mistake.  That we could just push a button and avoid the error completely.  Then we would be able to consciously decide whether we want to deal with the associated drama or not. 

Even better, as parents we’d have decision-making authority on our children’s mistakes, at least until they turned 25 or something.  Wouldn’t that make life so much more peaceful!?

Parent:  I know you are 21 and you want to go out for a drink and have sex, but I just don’t think you’re ready for all that.

Kid:  But all my friends are doing it, and they even get to stay out past midnight. 

Parent:  Well you’re not your friends.  I’m sorry…my answer is still no.  I am hitting the anti-blunder button now and that’s that!

Kid:  This is not fair…       

Mr. Steve Wozniak and Mr. Bill Gates you’ve just been assigned a new project!

Until that happens we’ll have to settle for trying to be better listeners with ourselves – to not dismiss those butterflies in the stomach, or the whispers in our mind.  That when we find that rose that captivates us like no other, we do not blind ourselves to the thorns that will undoubtedly line its stem. 

And yes, using naivety and ignorance as an excuse eventually does get old.