The two tragedies in life
To be or not to be, to have or not to have; an insatiable human desire.
I keep coming back to this quote by playwright and co-founder of the London School of Economics, George Bernard Shaw: “There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it.”
It’s mind-blowing how true that is.
We always think the worst thing that could happen is not getting what we want, right? But getting it can be just as complicated.
Here’s how I understand it.
Think about something you really wanted — a dream job, a relationship, a goal you were obsessed with. Maybe you didn’t get it. That sucks. It feels like everything is going against you, and you can’t help but wonder, “What if?” It’s like pain that sits with you, nagging at you. You think how perfect things could’ve been if only you’d gotten what you wanted.
But then, there’s the other side of the same coin: what happens when you actually do get it. You’d think that’s the happy ending, right? But sometimes, it’s just the start of a different kind of struggle.
“All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be.”― Henry David Thoreau, Walden
