(So Called) Hard Mode
Sometimes life's like a melted box of chocolates—messy but still sweet
Life is a single player game. You die alone. In the meantime you try to do your best to face each day as it comes.
Do the best you can with what you’ve got where you are, as Teddy said.
Some days our Simulation overlord(s) decides to change the game’s settings and jump it up to HARD mode, don’t they?
Today was one of those.
But who cares? Did I have any reason to expect every day to be easy? And, let’s not forget: it’s reallllllly fucking easy way too often.
Another Teddy quote (or not?):
Comparison is the thief of joy.
Totally true…except for when it’s totally not.
Used well, comparison can be the source of joy rather than what robs you of it.
Compared to millions of people here in America, my life is smooth sailing. Compared to billions of people alive today—today—I’ve got it easy. Compared to innumerable masses across the world and throughout history—can we even begin to compare?
So suck it up, Buttercup. Life throws some punches, learn to duck and weave. Learn how to take some knocks. Learn that they’re often not even jabs, much less the haymakers we feel they are in the moment, just tiny checks. Learn how to ground yourself with humble, grateful comparison. Learn to trust your philosophy when it counts:
You don’t have to turn this into something. It doesn’t have to upset you. - Marcus Aurelius
It isn’t the things themselves that disturb people, but the judgments that they form about them. - Epictetus
And, above all, learn that this single player game you’re playing is giving you the chance to level up.
Isn’t that what makes the game fun and worth playing to begin with?
And don’t forget to also have compassion for yourself! A hard day you experience is still a hard day, regardless of someone else’s even-harder-day.