THE FIRST RULE OF SURVIVAL IS: MAKE YOUR OWN rules. The hell with what anyone thinks about the way you’re acting; listen only to yourself. And while listening, remember the words of Nietzsche: “Whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”
Since your loss didn’t kill you, it has made you stronger and has also given you the right to respond to it in any way you damn please. The loss may have been a universal one, but your circumstances are unique, so don’t let anyone tell you how you should feel or behave. Keep fighting in your own way—with courage, with humor, and without shame. B003ZYELC6 EBOK · Rivers, Joan
At the shiva, I still was able to laugh, but Melissa went deeper into her shell, which profoundly upset me. She was appalled by my telling jokes just hours after Edgar’s funeral. Where were my tears? Her response was a refusal to be with the people. What she didn’t understand was that my feelings were so overwhelming that I was able to deal with them only in the way that I had always dealt with pain: by laughing through my tears. B003ZYELC6 EBOK · Rivers, Joan
Whatever you do to recover from a loss, people will be critical because they believe that the only way to recover is their way. And you will even run into some people who should be run into by rhinos because they actually don’t want to see you get over your tragedy at all; grief is a spectator sport for them. B003ZYELC6 EBOK · Rivers, Joan
Well, perhaps Charlie Pride didn’t have a major league arm, but he happened to have a Hall of Fame heart.
“I decided,” said Charlie, “to try something else.”
Like another young pitcher, who once tried out for the Washington Senators but wasn’t quite good enough. And so Fidel Castro tried something else.
As Helen Keller said: “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing B003ZYELC6 EBOK · Rivers, Joan
