Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 January 2023 source ↗
Compare and despair. Comparing yourself with someone else or what someone else is doing or what someone else has is a recipe for sadness. What matters is who you are and what you want.
I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.
To have the courage to fail.
Perspective. I used to zoom in and it would be all catastrophic, now I zoom out and get a bit of perspective.
Like falling – endlessly – and then discovering you have wings.
Having a great fear.
The inability to negotiate peace and truly forgive.
I would deplore feeling deplorable about myself.
As a kind person who cared for others.
My biggest disappointment would be living with disappointment. What a burden to be shackled to. I would be truly disappointed if I didn’t (as the song says) pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again.
Felicity Jones, Robert Carlyle, Niamh Cusack, Paapa Essiedu, Helen George, Rita Wilson
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