Heureux qui, comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage

Heureux qui, comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage,
Ou comme cestuy-là qui conquit la toison,
Et puis est retourné, plein d'usage et raison,
Vivre entre ses parents le reste de son âge !

Quand reverrai-je, hélas, de mon petit village
Fumer la cheminée, et en quelle saison
Reverrai-je le clos de ma pauvre maison,
Qui m'est une province, et beaucoup davantage ?

Plus me plaît le séjour qu'ont bâti mes aïeux,
Que des palais Romains le front audacieux,
Plus que le marbre dur me plaît l'ardoise fine :

Plus mon Loir gaulois, que le Tibre latin,
Plus mon petit Liré, que le mont Palatin,
Et plus que l'air marin la doulceur angevine.

Joachim du Bellay

What's worst of all? A root canal from a rural dentist? Or coming off painkillers when you are a former heroin user? Even a root canal without Novocaine doesn't compare, since the root canal will be over in a matter of hours, and withdrawals can take a day, or two, or three. The root canal is all in that one place. Withdrawals are all over your body, aching, hurting, stabbing, throbbing, slamming, pulling--and then in your head, with thoughts uncontrollably going here and there and to hell and all kinds of dangerous thoughts. The sweating, the freezing, the shakes, it's an experience that you don't know until you've been there. And the more you tolerated, the worse it is to get off.

Pray for those who are having the courage--the moral courage--to get off, no matter what the withdrawal pains are.