Perhaps a person gains by accumulating obstacles. The more obstacles set
up to prevent happiness from appearing, the greater the shock when it does
appear, just as the rebound of a spring will be all the more powerful the
greater the pressure that has been exerted to compress it. Care must be
taken, however, to select large obstacles, for only those of sufficient
scope and scale have the capacity to lift us out of context and force life
to appear in an entirely new and unexpected light. For example, should you
litter the floor and tabletops of your room with small objects, they
constitute little more than a nuisance, an inconvenient clutter that
frustrates you and leaves you irritable; the petty is mean. Cursing, you
step around the objects, pick them up, knock them aside. Should you, on
the other hand, encounter in your room a nine-thousand-pound granite
boulder, the surprise it evokes, the extreme steps that must be taken to
deal with it, compel you to see with new eyes. Difficulties illuminate
existence, but they must be fresh and of high quality.
--Tom Robbins, "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues"
--Don Dwiggins "The truth will make you free, SEI Information Technology but first it will make you miserable" d.l.dwiggins@computer.org -- Tom DeMarco
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