Life is like a root canal (sometimes)

The other day, a friend of mine likened the difficult times in life to a root canal.

She said, "It's exactly the same, if you think about it."

And I said, "How... exactly?"

She pointed out the following interesting similarities, and the more I think about what she said, the more I know that her assessment is right on the money.

A root canal...
- starts with intensely painful symptoms
- will be more painful before the procedure is over
- is more expensive than you thought it would be
- cannot be avoided and cannot be postponed, lest things get worse
- may require narcotics (and/or other numbing substances) to endure

From here, it's easy to extrapolate a viewpoint wherein the emotional messes of life can be lumped into the same category as dental procedures. I can see where each point on her list is not just valid but truly true, in the deepest sense of trueness. And I've accepted that, despite the difficulty.

Life is full of difficult things, like root canals. It's also full of wonderful things, like friends who use dentistry to comfort you in times of distress. I've never had a root canal (knock wood) but I've got tons of friends who care enough to draw these wild similes and make me smile.