Jolie-Laide is a French term of affection that translates roughly as Pretty-Ugly and is used to describe something that is unconventionally beautiful.
No one’s life is perfect! What we see on Instagram and other forms of social media is the equivalent of “highlight reels” with all the nitty gritty of life photoshopped out. Happiness is not the absence of problems but rather the learned, cultivated ability to cope with them, to accept them as a normal part of life, and deal with them with equanimity.
The problem isn’t that there are problems, it’s that we have unrealistic expectations about life and have this fantasy that somewhere there is a life without problems and waste our energy trying find this non-existent El Dorado.
Closing Quote:
“I said I know this ain’t what you wanna hear
But it’s what I’m gonna say
Sounds like life to me; it ain’t no fantasy
It’s just a common case of everyday reality
Man, I know it’s tough but you gotta suck it up
You gotta hold on tight just enjoy the ride
To hear you talk you’re caught up in some tragedy
It sounds like life to me.”
– Darryl Worley, ‘Sounds Like Life to Me’
As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier