"The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn."

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
- Reinhold Niebuhr


The wisdom's definitely the tricky part. There is so much proverbial advice given about this. We are told to learn to accept things we can't change, to always fight for what we want or believe in, to pick our battles wisely. The problem is, which advice to we take and when?

With people, it's even more difficult. When do you give up on a person? What do you accept and what do you refuse to tolerate? And why is it that we accept certain flaws in some people and not in others? Why do we more readily accept fault in our friends but not in strangers? This natural inclination to forgive or excuse our friends and not others makes us so closed-minded.

"We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves." - Galileo Galilei

The hardest of these questions, I think, is: Is love always enough - Is love enough of a reason to stay with someone who hurts you, or someone with a fault that you despise? Do you stay and fight to make it work, excusing the flaws and the pain the person causes you, or do you walk away because even though you love the person, you deserve better? And if you walk away, what if you never find better? Should you have stayed? And is walking away equivalent to giving up?

I guess it depends on the situation, but still. If ever there existed a gray area where there are no clearly defined answers, it's here.


"The time to give up on people is never."
- Tracy, The Philadelphia Story

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Listening to: Augustana - Hotel Roosevelt