A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell;
And very hard the task I find
Of governing it well.
~ Louisa May Alcott

...that more or less describes my situation!

 
sweet words...

Is this a fancy which our reason scorns?
Ah! surely nothing dies but something mourns!

--Byron.
posted by Sylvia D'souza at 1:17 am 0 comments

 
Don't remember taking such a long break from my blog before, but it was a forced one and not willful. Glad to be back again! :)

As it may have been noticed, my favourite way of introducing a thought is by mentioning a quote…so here it is:-

"Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend's success."
--Oscar Wilde.

I have for sometime wondered upon the generally accepted theory that a friend in sadness, is a true friend. It seems to me that it does not take much to comfort or sympathise with a friend in his sadness. It is a situation where you have shoes on your feet and you tell your fellow traveller (friend) who has no shoes on, that "It is okay. It is fine. Not to worry. It won't hurt after sometime." I'm not at all implying that the words spoken to ease the distress of a friend are not genuine or that they are meaningless; only that, such words do not require much effort on the part of the speaker. Or, to take it a step further, they cannot be used as a measure to test the affections of the speaker towards the friend.

On the other hand, I would say that a friend, who is a friend in happiness, is more closer to being a true friend. I would call it a better test of friendship. Take the same situation. You do not have shoes on your feet, but your fellow traveller (friend) has just got new shoes. Does it not require an effort on your part to be happy for him? Does it not require an effort on your part to rise above your own sorrow, your own sadness, your jealousy over the friend's good fortune, to actually feel happy and express your happiness to him? Isn't it a much greater proof of your friendship that even though you do not have what he has, even though you may never have what he has, you can yet feel happy in his happiness, you can yet think of his happiness as your own?

Maybe, it is easier for us to comfort people when they're sad because a part of us is relieved that it is not we who are in their position, and it is harder for us to rejoice when people are happy, because a part of us wishes we were in their position. Just a thought, don't know!


posted by Sylvia D'souza at 11:45 pm 0 comments