"Every cloud has a silver lining". We've all heard that before, and it usually means that no matter how negative a situation is, something positive can always be gleaned from it.
In Canada, we've just had an election. Obviously, there were some disappointed people, especially those who didn't vote for the winners, but instead voted for the losing side. That being the case, there are always positives to gain from every situation.
I think that this also HAS to pertain to life as a whole. While I'm not advocating being a pollyanna ( a literary character who ALWAYS saw the positive side of things whatever the situation was), I am saying that we have to admit that if we never saw the positive in anything, life would be dreary and depressing, and completely unbearable sometimes. Being positive is like a lifeline, or a life preserver in the rough seas known as life (if one will forgive the incredibly cheesy metaphor...LOL). If we don't hang on to it...we will most surely drown.
Over the last week or so, I must admit that some things have not proceeded how I thought they would. And initially, I was disappointed, upset, mad, irritated...all of that. When one puts in a lot of effort, time and thought into something (both mentally and physically), one can't help but feel that way when things don't necessarily pan out. However, I realize now that there were unseen benefits and consequences that I now recognize and can use in the future to avoid making the same mistakes again. For the record, I am speaking of two things primarily. One was the diet I'm on. Realized that I made some mistakes, and am going to do things differently. The second thing is of a personal nature, so I'll keep that to myself. I'm not completely used to sharing EVERYTHING on a blog...
Fools Gold...is a metal called pyrite, which looks like, and can be found with real gold, but isn't actually gold. It deceives you into thinking it's more valuable than it is, presumably after a lot of time and effort is expended in "discovering" it. I think I've been finding a lot of fools gold lately...things which appear valuable, but aren't. Things which appear to be real, but are fake...and things that seem to be built on rock, which instead is built on sand. Flakiness for gravitas, shallowness for profoundness.
I don't know...I just have never suffered fools gladly. That, by the way, is a phrase taken from the Bible. 2 Corinthians 11:19. G.K. Chesterton says we should interpret it this way...
There is an apostolic injunction to suffer fools gladly. We always lay the stress on the word “suffer,” and interpret the passage as one urging resignation. It might be better, perhaps, to lay the stress upon the word “gladly,” and make our familiarity with fools a delight, and almost a dissipation. Nor is it necessary that our pleasure in fools (or at least in great and godlike fools) should be merely satiric or cruel. The great fool is he in whom we cannot tell which is the conscious and which the unconscious humour; we laugh with him and laugh at him at the same time. An obvious instance is that of ordinary and happy marriage. A man and a woman cannot live together without having against each other a kind of everlasting joke. Each has discovered that the other is a fool, but a great fool. This largeness, this grossness and gorgeousness of folly is the thing which we all find about those with whom we are in intimate contact; and it is the one enduring basis of affection, and even of respect"
So, I've never been able to tolerate those who are flaky,scatterbrained, or live in a continual state of haphazardness. Perhaps it's because I'm a pretty serious, grounded, and composed man. Who knows. While I admit that sometimes it would be different to be all relaxed, and free and flexible...if there are too many of those out there, nothing would ever get done!!
But I'm digressing...Fools Gold and Silver linings. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we will all experience things in life that are BOTH depressing, and not what they seem. The two aren't mutually exclusive. It's our goal, or our task to both recognize that we have to look for the positives AND to make sure we don't get taken in again by what appears to be real...
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