I've never been convinced that experience is linear, circular, or even random. It just is. I try to put it in some kind of order to extract meaning from it, to bring meaning to it.
Take away the miseries and you take away some folks' reason for living.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the idea that suffering can give life meaning to some people.
Toni Cade Bambara's quote suggests that for certain individuals, the struggles and miseries they endure may serve as a vital part of their existence, providing them with purpose, identity, or a reason to persevere. In essence, the challenges faced can shape a person's character and motivations, indicating that the presence of hardship can sometimes fill the gaps that happiness might otherwise occupy. This underscores the complexity of human experience and emotions, where joy and suffering coexist and influence one's sense of being.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about overcoming adversity.
More from Toni Cade Bambara
All quotes β(M)aybe we too busy being flowers or fairies or strawberries instead of something honest and worthy of respect . . . you know . . . like being people.
Write a lot and hit the streets. A writer who doesn't keep up with what's out there ain't gonna be out there.
I'll be damned if I want most folks out there to do unto me what they do unto themselves.
The dream is real, my friends. The failure to make it work is the unreality.
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He who robs us of our dreams robs us of our life.
There are two tests in life, more important than any other test. On Monday morning, when you wake up, do you feel in the pit of your stomach you can't wait to go to work? And when you're ready to go home Friday afternoon, do you say, 'I can't wait to go home?'
The point is to live everything.
Learn to dance, so when you get to heaven the angels know what to do with you.
So you can't dance? Not at all? Not even one step? How can you say that you've taken any trouble to live when you won't even dance?