I came across this image by Manhattan-based writer and illustrator Maira Kalman via Maria Popova, one of my favourite bloggers.
I, too, ask myself this, with tears in my eyes: how are we all so brave? Because, God, we trip. The whole of humanity is constantly tripping and hurting and failing and trying to make things better.
Since I was kid, I’ve done this thing – spontaneously – where I rise above myself and everyone and I’m suddenly looking down on us all like one might look down on ants. There we are, doing our thing, finding purpose and meaning in it all when, in our guts, we know it’s neither purposeful or meaningful.
Yet. Day after day we get up and keep trying, like an ant that will keep trying to find a route back to home base when you block it’s way with a stick or your foot. Over and over.
We are amazing in our tenacity and in our ability to keep the hope alive. Kalman’s image captures this intriguing moment in the human experience so wonderfully, don’t you think?
