Sometimes you have to take a step back in life and call out the elephant in the room. And sometimes that elephant will show you that it’s all good (even when your world is falling to pieces), that it’s useless to compare yourself to others (even if it’s second nature for the entire animal kingdom), and to recognize that effort does not always equal success (good people who work hard get crushed just as often in life as bad people rise to the top).
Jamie Varon has penned an emotional, poignant, and deeply affecting piece in the Huffington Post that is a rare case of dropping F bombs not just with aplomb, but with apparent impunity – and getting away with it!
She inspires without being pedantic or patronizing. She’s youthful and hip, but sage enough to know some of life’s great secrets. Most of all, though, she has the reader walk away feeling better about themselves no matter how shitty things might seem right now. Varon’s prose is gritty, yet uplifting; seemingly base until you think about what she’s just written and go, Shit la merde! She’s bang on, yo!
Personally, motivational speakers annoy me. The best part of Chicken Noodle Soup for the Soul, for example, was that I didn’t have to read Jack Canfield, the anthologist who put it all together, but instead got to be blown away by some impressive writers and orators.
With respect to Jamie Varon’s piece, if you don’t have the time to read the entire article, here are some of my favourite nuggets of gold:
Our experience cannot always be manipulated. Yet, we don’t act as though we know this truth. We try so hard to manipulate and control our lives, to make creativity into a game to win, to shortcut success because others say they have, to process emotions and uncertainty as if these are linear journeys.
Things are dark until they’re not. Most of our unhappiness stems from the belief that our lives should be different than they are.
You need to stop listening to people who are in vastly different life circumstances and life stages than you tell you that you’re just not doing or being enough.
And what I think we all need more than anything is this: permission to be wherever the fuck we are when we’re there.
Sometimes you’re not falling in love because whatever you need to know about yourself is only knowable through solitude.
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Richard H. Harris 