"Life is great, ain't it?"
"Every second of it," I replied.
"Every damn one," she said.
This got me to thinking. Life has ups, downs, lefts and rights. Life has loops, twists, curves, tunnels and bridges. There's no denying that life is hard. As my little sister says "Life is a bitch because if it was a whore it'd be too easy." Ain't that the truth? I'll be the first to admit that life has its challenges, but I'll be damned if it's not worth every single struggle. Life has its way of teaching you exactly what it wanted to. Something my mom told me on a different occasion is that you need the downs to truly appreciate the ups. Without the sad we wouldn't know the happy.
Learning this wasn't easy to do. It took some failures; it took some pain; most of all it took some triumph. That sweet, sweet taste of self-pride. Knowing that someone saying "I'm proud of you" can't even hold a candle to the pride you feel in yourself is one of the greatest feelings you can ever feel.
Pride may be a sin, but it's a necessary one. We must take pride in the work we do. If my dad didn't take pride in his (what he calls) "grease-job landings," all the passengers would readily know it. Having the pride in his work shows in the work he does. The same holds true for a writer. If a writer doesn't take pride in their work then the reader can tell. You get writing that's unpleasant or hard to read. When a writer takes pride in their writing they will put their heart and soul into the work, and (as with the prideless writer) the reader can tell.
If life gets you in a funk, don't worry. It happens to the best of us. It happens to presidents; it happens to CEOs; it happens to poets; it happens to parents. There is no one who can avoid a funk once in a while. As bizarre as it sounds, enjoy your funk.
You'll come out on top in the end, but learn the lessons that you're meant to while you are at rock bottom.
No comments:
Post a Comment