"I wouldn't dare to fix the twist in you."

Sick Puppies
(Forgive my constant borrowing of song lyrics. Songs are musical poetry to me, and I am a sucker for such things.)

Did you ever notice how the most interesting people are the ones with the most scars? Personally, nothing bores me more quickly than getting to know someone and hearing they have never moved anywhere, never lost a job, never had a relationship end harshly, never ran away from anything, never had anyone close to them suffer, never suffered themselves. I just don't have an appetite for milquetoast or folks who don't have a story, don't have some experience to bolster their opinions and vision.

On the flipside of that, nothing compels me quite like damage. If you have lived a life of struggle, of challenge, if you still sweat under the load of some monkey or demon, we are likely to be fast friends. Because I can see the kindred spirits inside us both. No matter how slick you find my veneer, I guarantee it's corralling something inside me that's equally dark and vicious to what's inside you.

This actually reminds me of a scene from "Lethal Weapon 3," where Martin Riggs (play by Mel Gibson) and Lorna Cole (played by Rene Russo) are comparing weapon wounds. By the time they are done trying to outdo each other, they have stripped off their clothes and the passion is thick, and in my mind that had as much to do with the exchange of experiences and the resultant pain as it did with revealing more and more flesh.

It's that sense of understanding and shared pain that knits people together, or that's how it plays out in my world. Like another lyric from SP goes, "I recognize that I am damaged. I sympathize that you are, too." Shared pain should be halved pain. It is both a natural act and time well spent, and it is irresistible. It makes me wonder and rue why it happens so infrequently.