The word scars has always had a negative connotation behind it. A common name for Mental or Emotional injury is referred to as mental scars or emotional scars. Medically speaking scars or scarring is a step in the natural process your body undergoes to heal. Even though the healing is happening when a scar appears it tends to leave behind what some people see as an unattractive mark or area. Emotional scars and mental scars follow the same rules; a broken heart, the death of a friend or family member. All of these things can give us scars of some form. Having many scars myself I can relate with the desire to cover up or be rid of the unattractive areas on my body or in my life. It can become increasingly frustrating when those scars don't fade over time, or take longer to vanish then we hoped for. However this doesn't have to be a bad thing as quoted by a musical group AA-" How Stubborn are the scars when they won't fade away, or just a gentle reminder that now are better days".

I've had my fair share of "scars" whether emotional, mental, or physical. Each one has a different story, each one is riddled with wouldas, shouldas or I wish; but like the choices I've made to obtain them they are permanent. A Great example of scars as a story is the process of tattooing. Tattooing is the process to scar the skin by injecting ink into the second layer of skin causing it to be stained in the patterned it was scarred. People are in most cases proud of their tattoos, yet try to hide the natural tattoos of life. The body is a blank canvas when you’re born. Through trial and error we have been painted with life experience. Where I’m from scars are worn like the patches on a jacket. “I've been stabbed here or I've been shot there" is a badge of honor. Maimed knuckles were on the hands that lead us to adulthood. We grew up believing that our scars were how we were defined. If my face wasn't torn or my legs weren't spotted from the bruises then I’ll never fit in. Although it’s looking beyond the superficial, I was convinced we still were missing something. We were missing the beauty of those distorted knuckles, the grace in that scraped up knee. We never stopped to realize that we were actually bonding over our flawed skin instead of boasting about, "You should see the other guy".

We shouldn't hide behind the outcome of something that happened but instead smile that we learned from it. It took me a long time to realize just how special each blemish I carry truly was to me. When I look at my shin I don't see I fell and it was painful; I see my wife and I playing soccer and she juked right pass me scoring the winning goal. Something my grandmother always said to me, “You’re only as interesting as the scars you can smile at". For me that sums up things beautifully. Bad things happen to everyday people and even when that scar doesn't fade just remember that now are better days. I can successfully say I’m smiling because now these are truly better days.

a thousand what-ifs swarmed before my eyes,
and stung me as if I had rocked beehives,
the woulda-coulda-shouldas, if-only-I's,
all buzzed their screams, that he'd be still alive,

yet I had done all that I knew to do,
the breaths of life I gave him, much too late,
the EMT's three-quarter hour, their crew,
could not revive my father from his fate,

his heart had fibrillated, lifeless eyes,
were blind to all, his ears heard not our screams,
upon my breath his breathing finalized,
he fell to sleep the sleep where are no dreams,

now on that couch where father there reposed,
not we nor our dear cat to rest there goes

(C)2012, Christos Rigakos

Hello my fair weathered friend
Been a long time since you've come round
Seen a lota faces
Visited most places
Danced with the devil and lost a few graces
In the spaces
You've been gone

So you're back, you say for good
What you got left to prove
In this ol hood
All the shouldas and the could
Everything you used to boast proud
For what you stood

Yeah you seemed anything but small
We thought you got most all
Then you tossed it most in
For a different life you thoughtd be a ball
But the final score
Has been proven fairly poor

Now you're broke bent and ridged
With a hard edge, you're cold and fridged
Couldn't keep a dame
Couldn't score a lay
You've got more nails than you do planks to mend those rotten and worn out bridges

So my fair weathered friend
You say you need a place to crash
Somewhere to stash that smokey hash
Got no prospects or even petty cash
You're a mild an irritant rash
But it's only I that myself can bash
For why do I persist with such incessant trash
Why can I never meet my final dash.

Pink skies, purple mountains
Yeah this life is a dream.
I can be
Anything that I want, until the sun starts to sing
Until the sun starts to sing.

Then its back to the grinding
I be grinding all day
From sun up to sun down
Yeah i be slavin away
I just been slavin away...

So much weight on my shouldas!
Pray my back doesn't break,
I find hard to move forward
Can't take a couple of steps,
Can't take a couple of steps.

Blue clouds
Greyest heavens
I been hoping for change,
Cuz right now all my seasons
Yeah they lookin the same
They just be looking the same.

So green, So young
You should be livin it up
I know
Life holds many treasures
But just livin's enough
I think that livin's enough.

I sit and I query
Analyzing past mistakes
Until my eyes are to weary

Over and over
In my mind they play out
The couldas, shouldas,wouldas
What if I just went homes
Instead of stayed outs

The past is like your shadow
Beside you when you're high
Over you when you're low

Learn from it what you must
Have it guide your future
Teach you what to trust
Live for what matters
Not for what you lust

It’s not the coulda woulda shouldas
That get to me
It’s the couldn’ta wouldn’ta and shouldn’tas
That I dwell on