I first noticed it as I was walking home from work. In the window of a bookstore that I pass every afternoon, a red poster sat leaning against the pane. It simply read, “Keep Calm and Carry On.” I laughed to myself.
You may have seen this phrase around town. Since that afternoon, I’ve seen it on both a t-shirt and a canvas bag. The history behind it is quite interesting, but for the sake of not reiterating something you can already read online, I won’t get into that now. Instead, you can read all about the slogan (as well as shop for British imported goods) at http://www.keepcalmandcarryon.com/. Clever web address, I know.
My point: since I was mature enough to respond to life’s situations appropriately, my motto has been exactly this. Keep calm, and carry on. Don’t let it get it you. Whatever it is, it’s not really that bad. Or however exciting it is, it’s not really that big of a deal. It’s one of those ambidextrous phrases that works for good things and bad things. And I still subscribe to that motto today.
But something got me thinking this week that maybe everything wasn’t as calm as it seemed. I started noticing a few symptoms: 1) my annoyance and avoidance of all those who couldn’t keep calm when life threw a curve ball, 2) the perception that not keeping calm was a sign of weakness and frailty, 3) and that even good things didn’t warrant excitability. So I kind of turned into a robot. Or maybe something else. That “maybe something else” part is what’s on my mind these days.
Is it wrong not to respond to life’s up’s and down’s? It’s not apathy as one might first diagnose. It’s just not allowing it more thought than an instant. Is that wrong? As much as I want to believe that some kind of nerve ending in my brain has failed, I can’t bring myself to say that there’s anything to be fixed. And up until this week, I took pride in that fact. So why does this question linger? Maybe I’m just not like most people. Maybe my view of acceptable displays of emotion is off. I don’t know. I just know I really want one of those shirts.
1 comment:
theres a difference between drama and feeling what your feeling. everyone reacts differently to situations in their lives, and while becoming hysterical (excited or depressed) isnt really the best reaction to lifes "ups and downs", its just how that person knows how to react. and its not that your not responding, your response is just more simple. either way, however a person reacts, is fine, cause unless you really are a robot, youve got some feeling.
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