>Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all!
I don’t subscribe to the ‘abiding sense of tragedy’ idea. But I, as well as many others of Irish descent, do share a great sense of irony about life. It might be because I know that bad things will happen. I know that disease will come somewhere, accidents will come somewhere, heartbreak, loneliness, betrayal, setbacks, plans delayed. All that happens in real life.I have experienced it many times, from being blown up when I was 18 and burned on 70% of my body to my mother almost dying from a brain hemorrhage and spending 9 months in the hospital to a divorce to a family member having serious emotional and mental issues. But what family doesn’t have tragedy? I am not unique in any way in that regard.
What I think the quote is really saying is that tragedy doesn’t destroy me. I know it will come and I take it as it is given, as part of life. I don’t like it, I do my best to avoid it, but I know I ultimately can’t, just as I can’t avoid the ultimate step in life, the end of it.
The great thing about knowing this is that it allows me to face reality head on. I am not afraid of it because I am familiar with it. It’s not exactly a friend, but it is an acquaintance I am on speaking terms with. And as a result I can go about my business with my other friends and acquaintances; love, joy, happiness, humor and passion in confidence, knowing tragedy isn’t my only companion.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by W. B. Yeats, 1865-1939, Irish Poet. Winner of the 1923 Nobel Prize for Literature
