As a teenager, I spent a lot of time dwelling on being sad. My bedroom was adorned with a large poster of a sunset proudly displaying the quintessential
sad quote,
"If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, it's yours forever. If it doesn't, then it was never meant to be." Truly, a sad quote of epically popular proportions. Anyway, with this colorfully mournful image to guide me, I perfected the
"doleful Denise" technique to the point where I now consider myself a seasoned wallower. Actually, I highly recommend it as a remedy to get through those blue times. Within limits, of course. Usually a box of Kleenex and a quart of ice cream or at least half a dozen chocolate chip cookies do the trick. Now select an appropriately weepy movie: The Notebook, Million Dollar Baby, Life is Beautiful, Seven Pounds are good examples. Beginners can start with Bambi and work their way up. You get the gist.
Sad quotes are the perfect accompaniment to melancholia (no, I'm not just talking about the Kirsten Dunst movie by the same name). But remember that wallowing should be productive. "Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward." Keep in mind during your Day of Despondency that things will get better, which is basically
Ralph Waldo Emerson's point with the encouraging quote,
"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars." Of course, sadness can lead to anger, but
Ralph Waldo also reminds us that,
"For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness." So let's leave angry
quotes for another day. Perhaps we can borrow some pearls of petulance from Eminem for the occasion.
Let's examine some sad quotes for the reasons behind our despair. Whoever said,
"The hardest thing to do is watch the one you love, love someone else" wins the Gold Star of Gloom. A pox on the unfaithful! Try this curse for a little solace,
"May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your _____ "(insert body part here). Feel better?
Shakespeare had a productive suggestion for getting over a perfidious partner.
"She's gone. I am abused, and my relief must be to loathe her" is a sad quote reflecting his arrival at Stage 2 of the five stages of mourning. I like this idea. Loathing at least shows some passion and interest in the person who spurned you. Indifference is the real killer.
Elie Wiesel deserved that Nobel Peace Prize for the painful summation:
"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference."Which leads us to
Eleanor Roosevelt's assertion that
"No one can hurt you without your consent." I understand where Eleanor is going with this, but I also know that she also spent years eating that gruesome gruel she insisted on serving in the White House, leading me to believe that this statement is as full of holes as the excruciatingly thin slices of Swiss cheese she served on miniscule pieces of Melba toast. This is likely what led
Franklin Delano Roosevelt to spew forth the sad quote,
"It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead -- and find no one there." Well, Franklin, what did you expect! They all beat a hasty retreat to the nearest fast foot joint for a decent burger! At any rate, he probably never enjoyed the culinary comfort of a generous serving of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream to drown his sorrows. Gee, that sounds like a great idea. Now where did I put that Bambi DVD...?
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