Saw a Billy Collins’ TED talk which was so good I had to watch it again. It includes this poem:
Some days I put the people in their places at the table,
bend their legs at the knees,
if they come with that feature,
and fix them into the tiny wooden chairs.
All afternoon they face one another,
the man in the brown suit,
the woman in the blue dress,
perfectly motionless, perfectly behaved.
But other days, I am the one
who is lifted up by the ribs,
then lowered into the dining room of a dollhouse
to sit with the others at the long table.
Very funny,
but how would you like it
if you never knew from one day to the next
if you were going to spend it
striding around like a vivid god,
your shoulders in the clouds,
or sitting down there amidst the wallpaper,
staring straight ahead with your little plastic face?
Man, this speaks to all of us somehow I think. To me, as a writer, performer, frontman, sideman or punching bag… To you at your job, whatever it is. We got good days and bad. Sometimes we feel like we’re in control, and sometimes we can’t seem to get a handle on a single goddamned thing. I think ultimately, what matters is how we handle the adverse that teaches us the most about our character. As I write, I’m more or less trapped in my bedroom working out how exactly I’m going to be productive from here. Not unhappy, not super glad, but I’m at peace with the moment. Some Days, I’d be freaking out about whatever it was I couldn’t do today, but I’d rather ponder the possibilities.
Struggle through another day, everybody.