You can’t be pretty, because
There’s someone prettier?
That’s stupid
You’re a lousy father, because
You raise your voice?
That’s kind of stupid
I mean, why try?
You failed when you tried before, right?
That’s really stupid
But, you counter, didn’t Einstein say
“Madness is trying the same thing over and over
And expecting a different result?”
Yes, he did
But he was referring to controlled experiments
Not life
Which is the ultimate uncontrolled experiment
How would I define ‘madness’, then?
Real madness
Is when you think you can control any part of reality
Other than yourself
Or that you can control yourself outside the limits
You’ve been given to work with
You think you can’t be a parent?
You can’t be a partner?
You can’t be a writer?
That’s really stupid
You become a parent by parenting
A partner by partnering
And a writer by writing
How do you do all that?
Or any of it?
Like any of us do:
The process of trial
And terror
You’re afraid?
That’s not stupid
But
It’s worth overcoming
I want to like this eleventy billion times over.
http://rechargewithheroes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Animated-Pointing-Down.gif
You’re afraid?
That’s not stupid
But
It’s worth overcoming
Reblogged this on The Monster in Your Closet and commented:
I have a blog crush on Beleaguered Servant, for the wisdom, compassion and subtle humor in poems like this one.
Or this one.
Or this one.
Or … oh, you get the point!
(He posts at least a dozen times a day
and wonders, sometimes, if it’s too much.
But if you were to ask me, I’d say
it’s nowhere near enough.)
Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
I love this more today than the first twenty or so times I read it.
I’d like everyone, everywhere to both read and internalize it.
Thank you Deborah.
I have three beautiful daughters, and this was originally spurred by a memory I had of us eating out one night and my eldest daughter developing an immediate, intense dislike of a pretty girl she did not know who happened to be eating there at the same time.
She said, “no one would think I’m pretty with her here,” and I thought (but didn’t say) that’s pretty stupid, (the part I did say) you are beautiful anywhere you go.
And she still is.