"You have to be in Hell to see heaven," wrote William S. Burroughs in The Western Lands. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy and his writing has been a beacon for me over the decades. But he's wrong. 

We tell ourselves things like that––you have to be on the dark side to see the light, etc.––when we've put ourselves in positions of misery that we then want to escape from. It's a self-justification technique, used typically by people like myself who've desecrated themselves with booze, drugs, sex, and other easily available tools. We screw our lives up, then right the ship, then say "Ah, well, I guess I had to screw up before I could right the ship."

It's bullshit, people. We make it ourselves and feed it to ourselves so that our incomprehensible and/or stupid decisions make sense. We don't have to go to the darkness to see the light, we simply go to the darkness because we're drawn to it and finally realize how much of ourselves we lose to it. Then, if we're lucky, we stop going to the darkness and go to the light. 

I've restrained myself from making moralistic lessons here in the labyrinth, but here it is: It's possible to live your life in the light without first seeking the darkness. Don't hoodwink yourself into believing that you have to take that road just because others have justified their time in the darkness. 

Call me a hypocrite if you will, because I found my way to this understanding by walking in the darkness. But here's the difference, dear reader: I got thrown into the darkness by family circumstance, and had to fight my way out. Maybe you're in the same boat, but if you're not, just don't go there for fun thinking that it will help you see the light someday. It's not worth it. 

One should not enter the way of desecration casually, and here's why: not everybody who walks on it is able to step off of it. If you dive into your personal hell because you think it'll help you see heaven, realize that clawing your way back to the light isn't so easy.

There, my moral lesson is over. My walk in the way of desecration is over. I hope yours is, too––or that you never started down that path in the first place.