September  25, 2019

Thought for today:

“Nor can I suppose that when Mrs. Casaubon is discovered in a fit of weeping six weeks after her wedding, the situation will be regarded as tragic. Some discouragement, some faintness of heart at the new real future which replaces the imaginary, is not unusual, and we do not expect people to be deeply moved by what is not unusual. That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency, has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotion of mankind; and perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it. If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.” 

George Eliot 1819-1880, 

[Marian Evans Cross]

in Middlemarch [1871-1872], 

chapter 22. 

Dorothea makes that comment in Rome as she’s dealing with unexpected issues that have come up in her marriage.

I like this quote because it  articulates the silence we all feel when reality settles in after our imagined expectations crash into a wall.

Better put: “Often the way life works goes like this: Illusion. Disillusionment. Decision.”

At first things look good. Then we discover pluses and minuses.

For example, the restaurant looked good from the outside and the menu on the window. We went in - and wow were we disappointed.

It looked like a good investment, but ....

"I thought she was a good choice, but in time, wow was I wrong .... or wow I found out she must much better than I could imagine ...."