No matter what, even if you do something to numb yourself, there will be pain, and life’s philosophies and religions state by using their particular drug (teaching) you can avoid it, but at day’s end, no amount will fully deaden all the pain you will ultimately experience.
© 2026 – SoulSequel
39 responses to “how is life the same as a root canal?”
Life is 99% attitude and 1% pick a direction and move forward. If you don’t like your life just change your attitude.
@immortal_pirate more like 20% what happens, 80% your response
It’s the same because if you don’t deal with the reality and find meaning in getting it done, infection sets in.
And like a root canal numbing only works temporarily, and with side effect.
And similarly, one finds meaning for enduring the pain. And those who don’t master their fear to go and get it done grow more miserable, more infected, more septic.
Less and less able to function normally.
But those who get on with it soon get past that pain, and move on to many wonderful possibilities.
Which can bring a pain of Their Own. But one is far more confident in their ability to deal with it and get past it
@griz the point is that it’s obvious that god / philosophies of (basically) all stripes WANTS to have everyone to experience pain.
@Jear77
Cart-in-front-of-the-horse.
We are here today. Living in situations that cause pain (and let’s not forget pleasure!).
Does one go and just get the bloody root canal done, despite the temporary pain, so they can get on with the pleasure?
Or bitch and moan and carp about how unfair the pain is?
And get an infection.
That goes systemic.
And then there’s little pleasure to be found anywhere; or energy desire to enjoy it should some fall out of the sky!
You asked in another thread what’s wrong with an agenda?
This.
It blinds the eyes and shifts the perspective so we cannot see answers that are right in front of us.
It has this reaching to defend things that imprison and enslave us, and turn aside from things that would set us free.
@griz there’s little pleasure to be had anyways that someone in religious or philosophical authority has not already nixed for their own personal gain or outright control. And those few that remain are heavily controlled by reality.
@Jear77
Don’t follow religion then!
Jesus already told us that: and for those who found they just couldn’t kick the bad habit, he gave them a low-damage option: take care of the widows and orphans.
That way at least one party will benefit.
@griz life / god / whatever you want to call it prohibits lots of things that are both wanted by and needed (you don’t want to do this, but you have to, because it’s better this than face the consequences later). What then?
@Jear77
It sounds like a classic child vs parent issue.
Each has a different perspective on what is “wanted” and “needed” — with an added element that the child cannot see. “Beneficial”, in time-frames they are not even aware exist.
And as the child matures, perhaps unto having children of their own . . . they find themselves enforcing the same constraints upon their children for reasons similar to those voiced by THEIR parents. And THEIR children find they are vexed by their immature understanding of “want”, “need” and little concept of long-term beneficial!
@griz not necessarily. Consider the mother who steals food or sells her body to feed her starving children. She does what she must, and the results are what matters.
@Jear77
I truly hope this isn’t your story Jear.
Yes, the results preserve hope for a future generation. But also introduce a myriad of undesirable consequence.
Plus there’s no telling whether a future generation will make effective use of that hope bought at such expense . . . and not just piss it up against the wall and fall into the same repeating process.
@griz i’m a guy!
@Jear77
But your mother probably was not. I really hope you were not a first-hand witness to this.
Doing “what is necessary to survive” means that one (and their offspring in this case) survive; and that’s good. But the consequence often weighs heavily upon them; and that often is not.
@griz not through my family, but i am aware such things happen. Remember, i spent *years* in the “recovery” field.
@Jear77
So this would then fall into your traditional category of “a reach for an exception”!
Are you noticing just how often you turn to it?
@griz look to how many homeless there are, most of which are addicted to drugs, struggling to get their next “fix” by begging for $ in Chicago… or virtually ANY major city and say that again.
@Jear77
This is going on a tangent. Let’s return to your last clear original assertion I was responding to:
“Consider the mother who steals food or sells her body to feed her starving children. She does what she must, and the results are what matters.”
And this in the context of wants and needs, short-term and long-term beneficial.
So yes; people in such situations are tragic. Uncomfortable to fathom. Even causing suffering.
So how do you propose we should interpret this in terms of wants and needs, short-term and long-term beneficial? We see such a person. Are they there by want or need? What role did “benefit” play in their path to that present situation? Do you think long-term or short-term satisfaction is the major causal factor.
Going back even farther in the thread you introduce the idea of things a person might do that they don’t want to, but doing them now was seen as better than face consequences later on.
OK. These people, uncomfortable to fathom, are facing “the consequences later on”. So what concessions can we imagine them making (things they don’t want to do), but were deemed better than the consequences they are now living?
Do you think they painted an accurate representation to act on? Might they have perhaps been unaware of the consequence of addiction — or of the consequence of not making/preserving sufficient resources to keep a roof over their head?
Sure, some may have had it catastrophically taken from them through no fault of their own. But such people do tend to take good advantage of social systems to get back on their feet ASAP.
What might have to happen or be present, to want them to stay in such a state? Perhaps money was thrown after a newly-forming addiction? Perhaps mental health issues were present — both congenital and self-inflicted.
So I will say it again.
The ones that end up there and stay here, are exceptions. Tragic exceptions, but still exceptions.
So go back even farther in the discussion thread and we are talking yet again, about decisions people make; poor decisions; decisions strongly advised against.
So remind me: exactly where is this line of investigation going? I cannot discern it. I see only circles, and exceptions. Uncomfortable exceptions to be certain. But still exceptions.
@griz these exceptions, as you call them are the selfsame people who Christians are called to feed, clothe, visit while imprisoned, for every one helped with charitable acts 10 more are there to take their place. For every healthy baby, 10 more,are born with serious health problems. For every person who has a job 10 more are either underemployed or out of work. For every cancer un remission, 10 are terminal. For evey healed relationship, there’s 10 more that are never going to be fixed. And seeing this you’re like, oh, it’s all “peaches and cream where every dream comes true.” But i see the very real problems, heartache, and disasters that are people’s lives, i would be a fool not to equate life with bothing but pain.
@Jear77
So stop bitching about what other people are not doing, and do something meaningful about it yourself! Even a person unlimited means can make some effort to help those less fortunate.
One of the most horrendous boondoggles to never getting anything of meaning done in our lives, is the religion of pointing at others.
@griz maybe you have a point. But my point is that nothing ultimately changes in the big picture. One life, a hundred lives, a million lives, a ten billion lives is too small of a number and not worth the effort – even if we’re talking about m *my* life.
@Jear77
What changes is how we choose to react to that which we feel never changes.
There came a point in my life where I had to realize that my own attitude was causing far more suffering than all of the accidents and illnesses, the random unfairnesses, and all of the evils ever committed against me (accidental ,intentional and imagined) put together.
It’s a lot like a man who awakens one morning to find himself on fire. And rather than put himself out, he starts cursing our ancestors who discovered and tamed fire. And then starts finding fault in all of the “compassionate Christians” who should rush over to extinguish him!
And then starts to complain about all of the suffering heaped upon him through no fault of his own.
Considerable suffering is mitigated at our choice to not be such a man.
Our attitude creates our reality: to far more a degree than we may ever suspect. (Unless we take a Behavioral Phychology course! And then one just begins to understand how much.)
@griz A view that everything is right – is able to be made to be all right, when it cannot made to be – as all ultimately ends in death – is essentially what you’re advocating. A view that there is something more, something wonderful after death, though the science doesn’t back it up. I can’t support those assumptions. While I am not suicidal, I can fully understand Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” soliloquy… but I propose a 3rd option: do nothing – don’t oppose the slings and arrows, don’t try… because it changes nothing.
@Jear77
It accomplishes nothing to lament that the Utopia is not here.
And downright counterproductive to say we’re going to do nothing because it’s not here.
Serious self-sabotage.
@griz even you realize nothing can be accomplished, ultimately? The earth will be destroyed – either by scientific (i.e. the sun going supernova), human (pollution, war) or divine intervention. Why bother?
@Jear77
If nothing else, it mitigates suffering!
But there’s also evidence it does far more.
Why let a possible, or even probable personal or even species future . . . keep one from all the joy, purpose and possibilities of now?
@griz mitigation is only blinding ourselves to these realities… and that of our own terminal state.
@Jear77
So are you saying we can only see reality if we are suffering???
Hmmm.
Suffering is endemic in conscious awareness of self within the greater reality.
But I question the notion that we are somehow unaware of it or covering it up if we’re not actively suffering.
More and more it sounds like you just like suffering!
@griz not quite. It makes us more alive to see these things constantly. Even the bible says this quite plainly – in Jesus’ words “for i was… and you did [did not do] x (because you saw/ didn’t care about my suffering).” But the point is there is too much… not every can be helped. Many don’t want to be helped. It also says “work out your salvation with fear and trembling. ” that doesn’t sound like a good time to me!
@Jear77
If there is too much, that just means our attitude/map of meaning/life philosophy isn’t doing its job.
So at the risk of being obvious, change it!!
Because not changing it is only going to increase suffering; which we’ve already identified at the level of “too much”.
Change has a good chance of relieving at least some of it. And then a bit more and a bit more until it is not so overwhelming we sit down and drop out.
Not being able to help everyone is a very poor excuse for not helping anyone. starting with ourself and our own attitude.
You see only the worst possible interpretation of that verse because that is all your current map of meaning will allow you to.
You know, the map of meaning that either needs to be changed or thrown out because it’s causing you to overload on too much pain and suffering!
And the really doesn’t seem to be a lot of Sherry and Giggles on the map you’re currently following. So admit it’s bad! Find a better meaning in let your little subpersonalities chart you a new map.
@griz i am living basically hand to mouth. Because of my quirks, i may be fired at any moment. I need to get stable before I even think about anything else. And the sad part is that if god exists, he knew i would get fed up with the garbage and say no more. If he has to send me to hell, and is sad about it, he has only his own ineptitude for helping to blame.
@Jear77
So are these reasons to make adjustments; or excuses to not bother trying?
Retreating to await stability hardly ever works. Too often it just becomes the spring on the Trap we can never escape from.
(Moving consciously back into spirituality here)
The construct you propose is backwards. We have every choice to not end up in a hell. And it’s not our ineptitude so much as our stubbornness and foolish pride.
God knew you would end up here. And he’s put me here to be your friend to help you through this if you want it; having escaped from a very similar place myself.
But I would ask a favor, if you could. Remember to stop a conversation with “Final comment” if it gets to be too much.
And if you are going to disappear again, drop me a note from time to time to let me know you’re okay.
@griz the guy who now moved back with me is trying to get his new businesses going… yet strangely enough, for every good thing for him he faces 5, 10, 15 bad things. His account is in the red. By putting off paying for a ticket plan he lost the car to “the boot.” (We will just give it back to the finance company.) He needs $10,000 to square things out – and i told him not to count on me for payday loans… as i don’t have a checking account with a history. If he ever does get things going… i have to wonder if i will get paid.
@Jear77
If this is the same guy you already know his modus operandi. If he’s not contributing regularly to rent, he’s a negative drain on your resources;
Financial and psychological. Consider everything you would extend to him as if it were charity, with no expectation of it coming back. Presume you will never get paid and you will not be disappointed.
@griz which is why I went out of my way not to be available last night. If i’m not here, i can’t help him with his stuff. The problem is that i see how he is. He put all his eggs in the basket of “i am going to get this restaurant and trucking business going.” And if the restaurant falls through he will feel as if he has nothing and may take his life.
@Jear77
I would call that a drain on you if he is rendering your own home unavailable to you in this way.
How he is going to assess his meaning (therefore his perceptions, is map and then his actions) in life is his affair. There’s a big difference between asking someone’s opinion and shanghaiing their home and their life.
(Which is how you make it sound).
@griz he is the one who got it initially, so i can’t complain.
Life has good times and bad times, enjoyment and pain. That is just the way it is. Nothing is forever and all things good and bad will come to pass. When pain comes, it is only for now and you will get through it. Perhaps a lesson is learned by the pains.
@ladybarbara
“He who has a why to live can endure almost any how” Nietzche
A meaningful life isn’t the cure for pain. But it’s a mighty fine antidote!