“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”
Ernest Hemingway
I love this quote. My Addiction counselor quoted it last night in our session. He reminded me of how a bone always heals stronger after it has been broken. This gave me hope.
But isn’t Hemingway also the one who said “All thinking men are atheist”? Isn’t he also the one who put a shot gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger on July 2 1961? How can someone be so intelligent and so ignorant all at the same time? That is a question that has been haunting me a lot lately. To have lived, learned and experienced so much…. How did I end up here?
Another quote that I have learned to finally appreciate is credited to American author Napoleon Hill (1883 – 1970)
“The paths of least resistance make all rivers, and some men crooked”
I used to think this quote meant that if you are lazy, you will end up a liar and a crook – or worse yet - an alcoholic or an addict. But if you really think about it, crooked rivers are not necessarily bad – neither are crooked people.
I have sat through many Speaker Meetings lately. A Speaker Meeting is where an addict or an alcoholic stands up in front of a group of strangers, and honestly and openly tells their story. They hold nothing back – nothing!
I sat and listened to a young girl confess to drug addiction and prostitution. She had learned both from her mother. She hated and mistrusted men because her father physically and sexually abused her from the time she was six years old. She was not justifying her choices. She was not making excuses’. It was not however, “the path of least resistance” that carried her through such a tangled path of poor choices – it was pure survival.
She sat in tears confessing her defects and exposing her soul to a group of total strangers. She was by the world’s definition, crooked - but by no means was she bad.
It reminds me of another famous quote. A fellow named Jesus said this one as he was talking to a prostitute who had just been caught in the act of adultery.
Neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." (John 8:11 NIV)
This one gives me hope too.
