The School of Life: An Emotional Education

by The School of Life

We are living the wide-open present through the narrow drama of the past.

They know too that what holds people back from evolution is fear and therefore grasp that what we may most need to offer those whom we want to acknowledge difficult things is, above anything else, love and reassurance.

‘With no attempt there can be no failure; with no failure no humiliation. So our self-esteem in this world depends entirely on what we back ourselves to be and do,’

There is no need – on top of everything else – to be anxious that we are anxious. The mood is no sign that our lives have gone wrong, merely that we are alive.

We, the ones who are asphyxiated without periods by ourselves, take other people very seriously – perhaps more seriously than those in the uncomplicated ranks of the endlessly gregarious. We listen closely to stories, we give ourselves to others, we respond with emotion and empathy. But as a result we cannot keep swimming in company indefinitely.

Your existence is a small, temporary thing. You will die and it will be as if you had never been.

The drama began long before anything dramatic unfolded.

We would do things so much better if only we cared a little less.

We will be reminded – once more – that love is a skill, not an emotion.