Accept The Good

Watched a movie last night - Things We Lost in the Fire - Benicio del Toro, Halle Berry, David Duchovny.

Watch it. It is intense, it is human - it makes you feel, it makes you think.

Duchovny's character has a pet phrase - "accept the good." When Halle Berry is talking to Benicio (a heroin addict), he's talking about the hard things in his life and she says "accept the good", because he does have good things in his life.

Perfect. Accept the good. It makes so much more sense than today's typical bullshit, like "live your best life." Nobody, no normal person, is living their best life. The fact that we are human and we are the bottom 99%, makes it impossible.

And gratefulness seems like a wimpy cop out; your life is a struggle, a marathon run on razor blade road in bare feet - but you're supposed to be grateful for what you have, even though it falls far short of what you expected, what you deserve.

"Accept the good" is perfect because it is not over the top. Life may be a cesspool of unfulfilled expectations, but good things do come around, however small they may be.

Don't push them away. Accept them. Roll them around in your mind, caress them with your emotions, anesthetize your hurt with them. So ten minutes later, when the next bucket of shit gets dumped on your head, you will have had relief. Maybe made a memory you can use like a temporary painkiller, if it's strong enough.

Don't overdo it. No grand statements, like "living your best life." No wimpy gratefulness, as weak as overcooked pasta.

Accept the good and move on.

That's about as good as it gets.