DESPAIR CHEERFULLY...

We are under undue and unfair pressure to smile. But almost nothing will go entirely well: we can expect frustration, misunderstanding, misfortune, and rebuffs.

We should be allowed to be melancholy.

Melancholy is not rage or bitterness, it is a noble species of sadness that arises when we are open to the fact that disappointment is at the heart of the human experience.

In our melancholy state, we can understand without fury or sentimentality that no one fully understands anyone else, that loneliness is universal and that every life has its full measure of sorrow.

But though there is a vast amount to feel sad about, we’re not individually cursed and against the backdrop of darkness, many small sweet things should stand out: a sunny day, a drifting cloud; dawn and dusk, a tender look.

With the tragedy of existence firmly in mind, we can take pleasure in a single, uneventful day, some delicate flowers, or an intimate conversation with a friend.

We can learn how to draw the full value from what is good, whenever, wherever, and in whatever doses it arises.

Despair but do so cheerfully: believe in cheerful despair.