You know, I've always found "The Hurt" to be John explaining the verbal crossroads of his biographical songwriting. In the sense that, as John Mayer fans, you are constantly being barraged by statements that John is a whore and a scumbag for the way he seemingly uses and loses women, however, my personal rebuttal to that is, although that may seem to be the case, that most certainly has not been the story since the jump, and this song is the proverbial telling of "the straw breaking the camel's back".

It's easy to make mistakes but it truly is difficult to make the right choice, and when priding oneself on treating everyone with respect and being a "good guy" it can become an extremely arduous task making that right choice. If there was an individual in such a situation where he holds his own personal morals and values of treating females with the up-most respect, providing unabashed love and care for the girl with complete disregard to any past baggage, just true wholesome passion and comfort for the admired individual, yet time and time again the man's efforts go unacknowledged, unappreciated and frankly, taken for granted, this person is now presented with, "The Hurt".

A verbal vomiting of a soul worn down, beaten up and spat on for being the one and only thing the person knows how to be, and that is to be himself and a genuinely good person. People tend to slam John for his current socialite lifestyle, be it promiscuous or not, there is no way such a, "monster" could present such profound messages of care and love, such as in "Wheel" of "War of My Life" along with countless other examples.

Every guy knows how to take advantage of a girl, it is a scary but true fact. Especially when that female is in such a vulnerable state, such as in a fight with a boyfriend, problems at home, or even when her inhibitions are weakened when intoxicated. However you can tell what type of a man would take advantage of such an, "opening" per-say, rather than a man who frankly, just cannot stand being walked over time and time again and is now just giving in.

To try and make it clearer, "The Hurt" is a thought that crosses the mind of every good guy out there who has just been taken advantage of or thrown to the side for the umpteenth time, yet could never be conjured up in the minds of the men who use and abuse women regularly for sexual exploits and personal vindication. A bad guy could never write this song because he has never felt this way before.

For you Office fans out there, imagine Jim and Pam, except instead of the happy ending imagine Pam completely leading on and using Jim and then dropping him completely out of her life with little to no remorse. "The Hurt" is the song that would be playing as he sits alone in his home reflecting on the past 3 years of his life at a seemingly wasted period of exasperated love and hope.

"The Hurt" is the crossroads of whether to continue taking the high road which has left your feet cut up and bleeding, or to stoop to a lower level and be just like the rest of the cliche "pig" men. When do you break?