This Too Shall Pass

My sister and I came up with this together. I don't remember when or how but I remember where (memory is such a strange thing). I have never forgotten it. Never. There have been times when its been the only thing that got me through. I would keep saying it in my head over and over. Just those four words. And I would know that everything would be ok...Eventually...cos This Too Shall Pass. I know most people have words like these that somehow feel right, that make sense, in a way you believe is unique to yourself (but actually is not, as most things that you think are unique to yourself are not *sigh*). Oscar Wilde said Life is too Important to be taken Seriously. I read that first when I was still in school and I thought it was the most amazing thing I'd ever heard. I read it again a couple of days ago and this time around I confess myself baffled. Why is life too important to be taken seriously? Does he say that because generally when you take things seriously you tend to botch them up because of nervousness or fear or stress, in other words the general problems associated with caring about things too much and taking them seriously. But if that's what he meant what a curious way of putting it. Or did he mean its too important to be taken Too Seriously. Which would change the sentence dramatically and ironically make it less dramatic. I would think that since this life's the only thing we've got we should make the most of it, we SHOULD take it seriously, shouldn't we? We should laugh loudly and long when we're happy, cry hysterically and from the bottom of our hearts when they're broken, fume and fret about the things that make us angry, feel every thing that happens because without feeling what is life? In the words of the Goo Goo Dolls, you bleed just to know you're alive. Don't you? So, Mr. Wilde, I would like to politely disagree with your venerable opinion and suggest that Life is too Important to Not be taken Seriously. How, you wonder, will she connect her opening bit with the second bit. Was she just rambling, you think. But, mi amigos, watch as I masterfully sew it all together. My point in all of this is simple, life sucks a lot of the time, it seems meaningless, purposeless, and we try to hold on to the words of the people who came before us (like Mr. Wilde) who seemed to have a handle on all of this; but sometimes you need to come up with your own words. Because words are like shoes, One Size Doesn't Fit All. The right ones have to be sought out, tried out for size, polished by repeated use and then cherished. Words like that aren't easy to find, and once found they aren't easy to lose. And these are mine (and my sister's if she remembers them) : This Too Shall Pass.