At this time of year, and to be honest most other times too, people love to send messages that enthuse and quote anonymous ad nauseam about how to pick yourself up and dust yourself off. Reminding me of the American penchant for ‘life coaches’ from Billy Graham, whom I saw once in Oxford in the early eighties by invitation and could not believe how many people wanted to see him everyday of the three day visit, to the man I once heard telling paying Americans they were all perfect because they were what they were perfectly.
My schooling liked to bring qualities out in the students that met with the teachers’ approval and they were never slow to tell you when you were doing badly or had not reached expectations. As an exercise in character building it had a lot going for it ( even though I agree that the ‘expectations’ of anyone else are irrelevant unless one actually agrees with them) because it teaches one to be aware of limitations.
This is not to say you don’t try to win your dreams but it does induce a little reality into the life plan because we are supposed to be down in the dust and need brushing off, we are supposed to fail and try again, because really, honestly do you want to have a mind like those who succeed young? Who take their egos around the world and tell you the system is brilliant for everyone because it worked for them?
Having a dream is the sign of life, after that you only fail if you stop trying.