I'm bred for farm work, and for such folk, the only A's you get come from effort. Strife and strain are all the world can offer, and they temper you into something unbreakable because Lord knows they'll try -- without let up -- to break you.
Interpretation
Hard work and perseverance are essential for resilience and personal growth.
This quote by Mary Karr emphasizes the importance of hard work and the challenges that often accompany it. It suggests that enduring difficult circumstances and striving to overcome obstacles not only builds strength but also shapes an individual into a resilient person. The 'A's' symbolize achievements that come from sincere effort, while the reference to 'strife and strain' highlights the unavoidable struggles that life presents, ultimately forging an unbreakable character through perseverance.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming personal challenges.
There's a space at the bottom of an exhale, a little hitch between taking in and letting out that's a perfect zero you can go into. There's a rest point between the heart muscle's close and open - an instant of keenest living when you're momentarily dead. You can rest there.
Mother’s particular devils had remained mysterious to me for decades. So had her past. Few born liars ever intentionally embark in truth’s direction, even those who believe that such a journey might axiomatically set them free.
I was 40 years old before I became an overnight success, and I'd been publishing for 20 years.
I always say that a poet loves the world, and the prose writer needs to create an alternative world.
Childhood was terrifying for me. A kid has no control. You're three feet tall, flat broke, unemployed, and illiterate. Terror snaps you awake. You pay keen attention. People can just pick you up and move you and put you down.
Reading is socially accepted disassociation. You flip a switch and you’re not there anymore. It’s better than heroin. More effective and cheaper and legal.
I enjoy life when things are happening. I don't care if it's good things or bad things. That means you're alive.
My ideal setting is I walk from the streets, backstage, and straight onto the stage. Two minutes, and I am on the stage. That way, in my head I have gone from my world and then into a social setting with my friends.
It is a wonderful truth that things we want most in life-a sense of purpose, happiness and hope-are most easily attained by giving them to others.
Yet, he thought, if I can die saying, "Life is so beautiful," then nothing else is important. If i can believe in myself that much, nothing else matters.
Funerals...are for the living.
It is easier to live through someone else than to become complete yourself.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.