Quote of the Week...From Oscar Wilde

What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.
                                                                                                  ---Oscar Wilde
Here's a new feature to this blog: the "quote of the week"...

Although I have an incredible number of TV channels to choose from, I often find that all of my surfing through them is fruitless and end up on Music Choice, which here in Gainesville with Cox Cable occupies Channels 900 and up and offers genre-based music.  On Channel 943 is Soundscapes, which features instrumental music that is often called ambient, new age, or space.  I like the soothing music on it, but I also enjoy viewing the various quotes that pop up on the screen every few seconds.  Their messages are generally encouraging or philosophical in nature, and some have practical value.  These quotes range from famous historical figures to current celebrities, and while I generally agree with them, every now and then I have to object...a few weeks ago I wrote about one like this from Oprah Winfrey.  But today's quote is from English writer Oscar Wilde, probably most famous for his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, which I recently read .  Sometimes in order to understand a short statement like a quote, you need to know its context.  And while the above quote might take on a clearer meaning if I knew Wilde's own circumstances in making it, it seems to me to have a universal application...

First of all, I will say that I wholeheartedly agree with Oscar Wilde's quote, and that's mainly because he used the word "often" to connect bitter trials with blessings in disguise.  Not all bitter trials resolve themselves in a favorable manner to us, and it is small consolation to say that at least we "learned" something from them...often that lesson leads to cynicism and despair.  On the other hand, the writer of the Bible's New Testament book of James, which my church has been covering of late, fully embraces the opinion that passing through difficult hardships makes one stronger in faith and perseverance.  And wasn't it the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who once wrote, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger"?  As far as I'm concerned, the attitude I take through whatever trials I am experiencing will largely determine how they are resolved, as well as the resulting change in myself that having gone through them will reveal.  If I throw up my hands and play the blame game against others as well as "Monday morning quarterback" with all kinds of hindsight-based recriminations, then my mind is focused on the past and not on how to get through the crisis.  On the other hand, if I reduce the trial to specifics and tackle each sub-problem within it in a dispassionate and constructive manner without pulling down others around me into a negative cloud, then I am much more likely to arise from the difficulty stronger and more confident in my ability to face problems in the future...

I think a lot of folks who are in a state of despair over the outcome of this recent presidential election see themselves as going through a bitter trial.  But instead of descending into cynicism and hatred, it will be more constructive to look at the steps they can take from now on, given the changed circumstances, to forge for themselves and those around them a better future.  No, I'm not happy Trump was elected, and I'm afraid he's going to do some pretty awful things as president...hope I'm wrong about this, I know I'll be elated if I am. But there are things I can do, and then there are things that are beyond my control: how well I get through "bitter trials", regardless of their nature, depends in large part on me being able and willing to recognize the difference...