Not Always So

This week was one of those kinds of weeks; the kind that you hope you never have to repeat. Ironically this week was Groundhog Day ... here's hoping that I don't wake up to find that I lived it all wrong and I have to live it over and over again until I get it right (as in the Bill Murray movie)!!! Ugh! I won't bore y'awl with the gritty details but suffice it to say that in the windshield/bug scenario, I felt like the bug more often than not.

When things are going badly, there are a couple of phrases that come to mind that usually bring it all back into perspective (along with an ounce or two of single malt scotch) ... forgive me if I have blogged about this before: First one, from Jewish wisdom folklore:

"This too shall pass" ... or if Zen Buddhism is more your thing, "Not always so".

Those phrases have similar meanings (in my mind anyway): When things go well, be humble and cherish it. Things will not always be that way. When things go badly, be humble and take heart. Things will get better.

Second one, from the oldest living person on record, Jeanne Louise Calment (February 21, 1875 to August 4, 1997):

"I took pleasure when I could. I acted clearly and morally and without regret. I'm very lucky."

Its the 'act clearly, morally and without regret' part that sticks with me. Hey, if it works for the woman who lived 122 years, it works for me! One has to think that she was onto something!

So what's the point of all this? Yeah, this week felt like a shit-storm. Yeah, I learned some lessons the hard way. Yeah, I probably could have done things better, differently, smarter. But I'm OK. I will always be OK. Somewhere down the road, there will be a repeat of this week; a different time, different place and different set of circumstances but the net result will be the same. Stay humble, stay true and know that things will change.

And when I'm 122 years old (insha'allah!) none of this will matter!

As an aside, I came across a few other Jeanne Louise Calment 'gems' in my Google search of her:

"I've been forgotten by our Good Lord"

"I've only got one wrinkle and I'm sitting on it" (Uh, I dunno 'bout that, I saw her photo. Perhaps with her dim vision she wasn't able to see the mirror. But none the less, it is witty coming from someone her age.)

"Wit doesn't make girls pretty." (like I said ...)

"Always keep your smile. That's how I explain my long life."

"Every age has its happiness and troubles."

"I never wear mascara; I laugh until I cry too often."

"I see badly, I hear badly, and I feel bad, but everything's fine." (I hear ya Jeanne! I feel the same way some days!)

"I'm interested in everthing but passionate about nothing."

My all time personal favorite:

"In life, one sometimes makes bad deals." Comments on the notary public, Andre-Francois Raffray, who purchased her apartment, promising to pay $500 per month until Jeanne died. He paid twice the market value for the apartment before dying in December of 1995. Statistically speaking, it was a good deal! Who woulda thunk she would out live everybody! He was probably taking advantage of a frail old lady so maybe it served him right.

And according to Wikipedia (my source for all things trivial):

She gave up smoking only five years before her death at the age of 117 years. Though she relapsed for a year, she finally gave up smoking at the age of 119 years (blindness made it difficult for her to light a cigarette, and she was reluctant to ask others for help).