Adversity

I seem to be blogging somewhat vicariously this week. Still, if someone else can better express what I want to say, then why not.

Things have been a bit rough on a number of fronts lately, but one does one’s best to stay on top of it all by being resilient and making things, well, bounce off. This is the story of every human being, and at times we succeed without even trying, at others we fail miserably. Soldiering on in the face of hardship is easier said than done, but it helps when inspiration comes so handsomely, courtesy of Shakespeare:

“Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,
The seasons’ difference, as the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind,
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say
‘This is no flattery: these are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.’
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life exempt from public haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
sermons in stones and good in every thing.
I would not change it.”

Duke Senior in As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 1

How easy it is to just say “I give up, I’m not going a step further” when things don’t seem to be going your way. It happens when you think you’re all alone and there’s no one to prop you up.

All too often, the view of Duke Senior is one that is concealed from the disheartened and depressed. A friend of mine describes depression as being the inability to conceive of anything that could be remotely fun. Things that were once pleasurable become relentlessly mundane and extravagant, and hope for change seems futile. It is difficult to understand this when you’re not the victim of it, so a snappy “Just snap out of it” will never work.

I don’t know if there is a universal solution. I know that my spirits are sometimes improved when I open a book and unexpectedly discover gems like the above.

The one thing, above all, that I would tell a friend in need would be that friends and family are always around, even though it may not be apparent. Escaping from circumstances and the people around you only deepens the despair. Concern about turning to someone – only to find they are equally troubled – is unfounded. Even in the midst of one’s own troubles, knowing that there is someone else in the same boat more often than not can become a mutual call to arms, a drive to emerge from the crisis and draw strength from adversity.

Perhaps my tuppence-worth could be good enough for my own consumption from time to time, eh?