Tragedy, Talking And Winning

We talk of tragedy as though its rare, its strange that we believe it is. Maybe all we are is ostriches too afraid of being consumed that we bury our heads in the sand and hope. Hope to turn it into a rarity by pretending it is one. The thing is law of attraction doesn’t work like that.

Everyone I know has met tragedy –some can’t help but meet it ever so often. We quietly steal a glance every now and then, always to find tragedy looking at us.

In most religions, gods are embodiments of virtues and ancient stories personify the sun, the sky, emotions. Picture tragedy. You’d assume it to be old, attributing the gender opposite of yours. You know what I would say – tragedy is young and can be any gender. Maybe it is the face and age of the person responsible for the first time your pristine heart was broken, it’s the first time you thought something bitter , it is when you finally learnt the ways of the world.

You would think it to be grand but often it’s little tough to notice, little things. It’s you telling yourself ‘I am messed up’, it’s the voice of your parents saying ‘you must be joking when you say you want to be a writer’ , ‘it is the severely wounded by the world partner/spouse,  making you feel like you are too emotional’ and all the peculiar personal examples that are springing in your mind now.

I would assume in the olden days – it was the gender fluid Tragedy , a psychopathic teen perpetuating the lie- don’t talk of me. Words have power, each time you say my name I get stronger. Much like anyone in fear does – people believed without thinking. People in pain got comfortable in their quiet corners or at least comfortably numb.

In that silence, in that isolation – people unknowingly accept the pain, befriend it. Please don’t. Talk of it, share it. Pain when shared sometimes lessens and even when it doesn’t ,it looses power. The whole reason Tragedy perpetuated the lie was for self preservation , in quest for power.

Of all those I know battling their personal tragedies or comfortably living with it – those who know how to truly handle it are few.

Yes, the society, the system, our families and we ourselves have utterly failed in this regard.

Years ago I saw a very average movie with a very brilliant line/idea-  about an ice-skater with dreams of being a professional athlete who is suddenly diagnosed with cancer(I can’t remember the name, tried looking it up and just couldn’t find it. If you know – please let me know in the comments). They show her treatment, her family, her happy days and her sad days. In the end the narrator said she won. I assumed she didn’t die at the tender age of 20 but strangely that’s not what that line conveyed.

The antidote to tragedy is resilience, it is moments of freedom, moments of rebellion and moments of joy. It is the little joke you crack and laugh at as the world is falling apart, it is going for a dance class even when all you want to do is cry in a corner. This whistling in the dark will get us through.

The narration in the movie was something along the lines she won- till the very end she was happy, she smiled, she was loved. I think this is a beautiful definition of winning at life.

Only you decide what can break you, don’t let the world break you.

Be stronger where you are broken.