Inspiration Mondays: Telling People About Your Droopy Socks

I found this little book in a vintage shop a couple of weeks ago. I decided $3.00 was a great price for a little booklet of thrilling moments and profound passages. It was a bargain for sure:


Last night, while waiting for dinner to cook, I sat down and opened it and read through a few passages, and I came upon this paragraph:
To live, is to understand. To live, is to smile at the present; it is to be able to see over the wall of the future. To live, is to have in oneself a balance, and to weigh in good and evil. To live is to have justice, truth reason, devotion, probity, sincerity, common sense, right and duty welded to the heart. To live is to know that one is worth, what one can do and should do.
It made me remember this quote, uttered by the Man in Black from one of my favourite movies, The Princess Bride:
Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something
It got me thinking.

I think we believe that there are people who believe life is like how Victor Hugo described: a time to learn what one is worth, and what one can do and should do.

And I think we believe that, on the other end of the spectrum, there are people who believe that life is all about pain, just as the Man in Black said.

But I think the truth is that we are all sometimes like Victor Hugo, and we are also sometimes like the Man in Black. We are all swing back and forth between those two personalities week to week: sometimes rising upward with duty and strength beneath us, and sometimes crushed by the difficulties of life, or by the weight of shame or depression or guilt.

The thing is, in this Facebook world of sharing our highs, we don't see anyone's lows. And we believe everyone else is doing so much better than we are, and we wish we could be so lucky. And there are people out there who are really, really suffering because of it. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't one of them. It's hard to remember that everyone is in the same boat, paddling as hard as they can.

Today, I'm inspired by people who are trying their very best to be real. And what I mean by that is: they're not walking around chanting, "Oh man, life sucks, I'm suffering, feel sorry for me." They're simply not afraid to say that, no, things are not ok, and maybe I need some help and someone to talk to. And I'm inspired by those people who are wise enough not to say, "Oh, it's not so bad, chin up."

They're wise enough to say, "Hey, me too. Let's get a coffee and talk."

Here's to your socks falling down and telling people so.




Comments

Interesting find. And the sock quote...perfect.
YarnKettle said…
Well I know someone working on a pair of socks that will not slide off in your shoe. No I cannot say that, they will feel nice sliding off inside your shoe, yep that is what I mean.