I guess you just had to be there

As I finally emerged from the pain killer induced fog from my most recent shoulder dislocation yesterday, one of my favorite quotes of all time popped into my head:

"Welcome Oh life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race" - James Joyce

I was just thinking about how important experience really is. I can describe in gory detail what it feels like to dislocate a shoulder, but unless you've felt it, well you can only imagine what it feels like. Kind of like, you are Barbie and a 1 year old rips off your arm except you have nerve endings in all that even skin-toned plastic. I've always felt, incidentally, that the bummer about a dislocated shoulder is that you have no outward sign of how crazy painful it is once it's back in socket. I mean, you just go through this gnarly injury and you have nothing to show for it! No cool battle scar! No means to get people to think you are hard core for going through something painful. All you have is a sore shoulder and the need to ask people to pick up heavy things for you. Pretty much (unless of course you wear a sling) you just look like a wimp. Basically you just have to trust that people don't think you're faking it. I think that's why women tell their crazy birth stories. They want people to really appreciate the experience they went through; that they overcame something and did something big. We all want people to know the big stuff in our life. But I digress. So, good or bad, here are a few things I think you just have to experience to really understand.

1. Getting your heart broken

2. Really, truly, falling in love

3. Having a baby and then loving that baby more than you ever thought possible

4. Helping someone else really truly talk to God for the first time.

5. Coming out from being under anesthesia

6. Breaking a bone

7. Nailing a high C

So what else is there out there that just you have to experience yourself?