Tbird's Window Sill: Proof and the Pursuit of Happiness

Monday, November 12, 2012

Proof and the Pursuit of Happiness

I was talking to a little girl a few nights ago. (I guess high school isn't so little, but I remember teaching her dance as a much younger, little girl. I'll call her what I want.) She's the product of a very hard life and a lack of those survival skills required to get her needs met. And now she's coming to me to help her. I want to give her Waycross. I want to make her feel important and tell her that she's more than capable to be better than she is right now. I want to give her the world. I want her to change and come to me someday with a degree and whatever else she wants out of life. A wife, kids, a healthy, happy life... whatever it is. I want things to be better for her than they were for her parents. I want her to beat the odds. Her sister, whom I love dearly, has done that. She is a brilliant woman.

But.

It doesn't really matter what I want. It matters what she wants. And she is denying herself the right to want it. The pursuit of happiness, if you will. She's so scared that she won't have all those things, that she's given up. I do have some small hope, however. She contacted me. Why would she call me and tell me all the bad things she's doing if she didn't want me to tell her what to do in order to be better. She didn't text me to tell me she wasn't going to be anything (although that's what she did). She texted me to tell me she wanted help. She just doesn't know how to ask for it. Is this my new project? Is this little girl going to be mine now? Am I going to subject myself to heartbreak if (and when) this doesn't yield immediate results, or work even in the long run? But I feel like I have to try. She's reaching out to me, and I can't shut her down. I just can't. And this is what I want to do with my life. I want to prove to girls like her that it's not wrong to hope. It's possible to be something different. That's the career I'm looking at right now, and I have to get used to that heartbreak. It will come--and in a way I need to prove to myself I'm capable surviving that.

Proof. I need to prove to myself that I can make a good enough argument to prove to the children I love that they are worthy of the pursuit of happiness. Mission statement?

Intervention of the soul.

2 comments:

kyle gene said...: "You can't save anyone." -The Perks of Being a Wallflower, film

All you can do is try to help where you can. I know Yoda said there is no try...but forget that. In cases where the final result isn't up to you, your best effort is what counts.

P.S. I miss your fiction, your interconnected stories you had going last year. Maybe a new installment would be a good thing? Or maybe I just want some new Madeline Webster material to read ;); 11/12/2012
Kayla said...: I agree with Kyle! I miss your fiction! I have been looking for more since you last wrote one. :) If you ever get free time, writing a new piece would be lovely. I was becoming very involved with the interconnected stories.; 11/16/2012

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Womanly Always

Style is an expression of personality. The way we present ourselves is as much an art as the work we produce. But if a woman can present herself gracefully but with strength, and eloquence of language, then I like to believe she remains above snobbery of word or deed; she places scholarship before social obligations and character before appearances; she is, in the best sense, democratic rather than 'exclusive', and lovable rather than 'popular'; she works earnestly, speaks kindly, acts sincerely, chooses thoughtfully that course which occasion and conscience demand; she is womanly always; she is discouraged never; in a word, is loyal under any and all circumstances that she may be a symphony of high purpose and helpfulness in which there is no discordant note.