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Carolina Valdez Miller has designated every 2nd Wednesday as THE KINDNESS PROJECT time to write about the worth of kindness:
http://www.carolinavaldezmiller.com/
On this day in 1965 Shirley Jackson (THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE) died of heart failure, at the age of forty-eight.
For twenty years and from various angles Jackson had built a reputation for quietly ripping the lid off life in Pleasantville:
"The Lottery" and other stories; her two family chronicles, Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons; her horror novel, The Haunting of Hill House.
By 1962 her physical and mental health had deteriorated to the point that she could not face venturing into, let alone fictionalizing, her Bennington, Vermont hometown.
Any number of descriptions and causes were offered:
her mother, agoraphobia, years of drug abuse (amphetamines and tranquilizers), years of overeating and overdrinking, etc.
In the end, we craft our prisons, our palaces, our lives
by each decision that eventually become patterns of behavior which in turn become the rudder which takes us to pleasant or dark harbors.
Sandra says I sometimes remind her of Elwood P. Dowd (Jimmy Stewart) in Harvey. There are worse people to be likened to.
Listen to Elwood:
"Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it."
"Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, 'In this world, Elwood, you must be' - she always called me Elwood - 'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."
"Myrtle Mae, you have a lot to learn, and I hope you never learn it."
"I always have a wonderful time, wherever I am, whomever I'm with."
"Harvey and I sit in the bars... have a drink or two... play the juke box. And soon the faces of all the other people they turn toward mine and they smile.
And they're saying, "We don't know your name, mister, but you're a very nice fella."
Harvey and I warm ourselves in all these golden moments. We've entered as strangers - soon we have friends.
And they come over... and they sit with us... and they drink with us... and they talk to us.
They tell about the big terrible things they've done and the big wonderful things they'll do. Their hopes, and their regrets, and their loves, and their hates. All very large, because nobody ever brings anything small into a bar."
That last quote says it all:
No one's dreams, hurts, or losses are small. Puppy love is real to the puppy. The tears we dare not shed burn the worst.
What did Mark Twain write?
Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child's loss of a doll and a king's loss of a crown are events of the same size.
Which leads to my cardinal rule:
Always treat people as kindly as you can, for everyone is having a harder time than they appear.
It is the way of Man to be cruel to those who are weak and without power. Let us be the exception to the rule. Here is a tune of a poor girl who was treated as the world usually treats those who need but a bit of understanding.
http://www.carolinavaldezmiller.com/
On this day in 1965 Shirley Jackson (THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE) died of heart failure, at the age of forty-eight.
For twenty years and from various angles Jackson had built a reputation for quietly ripping the lid off life in Pleasantville:
"The Lottery" and other stories; her two family chronicles, Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons; her horror novel, The Haunting of Hill House.
By 1962 her physical and mental health had deteriorated to the point that she could not face venturing into, let alone fictionalizing, her Bennington, Vermont hometown.
Any number of descriptions and causes were offered:
her mother, agoraphobia, years of drug abuse (amphetamines and tranquilizers), years of overeating and overdrinking, etc.
In the end, we craft our prisons, our palaces, our lives
by each decision that eventually become patterns of behavior which in turn become the rudder which takes us to pleasant or dark harbors.
Sandra says I sometimes remind her of Elwood P. Dowd (Jimmy Stewart) in Harvey. There are worse people to be likened to.
Listen to Elwood:
"Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it."
"Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, 'In this world, Elwood, you must be' - she always called me Elwood - 'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."
"Myrtle Mae, you have a lot to learn, and I hope you never learn it."
"I always have a wonderful time, wherever I am, whomever I'm with."
"Harvey and I sit in the bars... have a drink or two... play the juke box. And soon the faces of all the other people they turn toward mine and they smile.
And they're saying, "We don't know your name, mister, but you're a very nice fella."
Harvey and I warm ourselves in all these golden moments. We've entered as strangers - soon we have friends.
And they come over... and they sit with us... and they drink with us... and they talk to us.
They tell about the big terrible things they've done and the big wonderful things they'll do. Their hopes, and their regrets, and their loves, and their hates. All very large, because nobody ever brings anything small into a bar."
That last quote says it all:
No one's dreams, hurts, or losses are small. Puppy love is real to the puppy. The tears we dare not shed burn the worst.
What did Mark Twain write?
Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child's loss of a doll and a king's loss of a crown are events of the same size.
Which leads to my cardinal rule:
Always treat people as kindly as you can, for everyone is having a harder time than they appear.
It is the way of Man to be cruel to those who are weak and without power. Let us be the exception to the rule. Here is a tune of a poor girl who was treated as the world usually treats those who need but a bit of understanding.
