I'm just listening to my old Live CDs for the first time in a while. The whole album, Mental Jewelry, is bursting with wisdom and prophecy. Good Pain has always been one of my favorite songs on it. I think the persona in the song (possibly Ed Kowalczyk himself) is recalling that someone changed his life when he taught him that he could overcome worthless fear and sadness by knowing his true self - his essence. Now, he lives life deliberately, with no fence-sitting or ambiguity:
"I'll never be the same again. I want to walk in the sun. I am alive and well again. No more bittersweet, no more good pain."
He sings of the destruction humans cause by focusing on pain experienced in the past or anticipating future dangers rather than living with purpose in the moment, and he rejects the oxymorons most humans accept in their collective insanity:
"So many of us stand in the middle, looking back to the worst, looking forward to the fall, making weapons of peace for the defense of the bloodstains on our peaceful sidewalks."
The song predates Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth" by about 13 years, but Tolle's description of his own suicidal thoughts that he overcame by realizing that his self and his ego are two different things, and his advice to live in the moment and shun the "pain body" are reminiscent of the spirit of this song.
I'm just listening to my old Live CDs for the first time in a while. The whole album, Mental Jewelry, is bursting with wisdom and prophecy. Good Pain has always been one of my favorite songs on it. I think the persona in the song (possibly Ed Kowalczyk himself) is recalling that someone changed his life when he taught him that he could overcome worthless fear and sadness by knowing his true self - his essence. Now, he lives life deliberately, with no fence-sitting or ambiguity: "I'll never be the same again. I want to walk in the sun. I am alive and well again. No more bittersweet, no more good pain."
He sings of the destruction humans cause by focusing on pain experienced in the past or anticipating future dangers rather than living with purpose in the moment, and he rejects the oxymorons most humans accept in their collective insanity: "So many of us stand in the middle, looking back to the worst, looking forward to the fall, making weapons of peace for the defense of the bloodstains on our peaceful sidewalks."
The song predates Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth" by about 13 years, but Tolle's description of his own suicidal thoughts that he overcame by realizing that his self and his ego are two different things, and his advice to live in the moment and shun the "pain body" are reminiscent of the spirit of this song.