Being a grownup means assuming responsibility for yourself, for your children, and - here's the big curve - for your parents.
Wendy WassersteinRead
The trick. . .is to find the balance between the bright colors of humor and the serious issues of identity, self-loathing, and the possibility for intimacy and love when it seems no longer possible or, sadder yet, no longer necessary.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of balancing humor with serious personal issues in life.
Wendy Wasserstein's quote reflects on the delicate interplay between humor and the serious aspects of our identities, such as self-loathing and the quest for love. It suggests that even in times when intimacy feels impossible or unnecessary, finding joy and humor can help navigate complex emotional landscapes, thus highlighting the importance of balance in life.
In practice
During a speech about mental health, I shared this quote to highlight the importance of laughter in overcoming serious issues.
Being a grownup means assuming responsibility for yourself, for your children, and - here's the big curve - for your parents.
I'm not going to throw my imagination away. I refuse to lie down to expectation. If I can just hold out till I'm thirty, I'll be incredible.
No matter how successful I become as a playwright, my mother would be thrilled to hear me tell her that I'd just lost twenty pounds, gotten married and become a lawyer.
No matter how lonely you get or how many birth announcements you receive, the trick is not to get frightened. There's nothing wrong with being alone.
I now bid farewell to the country of my birth - of my passions - of my death; a country whose misfortunes have invoked my sympathies - whose factions I sought to quell - whose intelligence I prompted to a lofty aim - whose freedom has been my fatal dream.
I was indeed a snob, if you agree with this definition: 'A person who believes that their tastes in a particular area are superior to those of other people.' I do believe that. Not superior to all other people, but to some, most probably including those who think Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen is a great film. That is not simply ego on my part. It is a faith that after writing and teaching about films for more than 40 years, my tastes are more evolved than those of a fanboy.
Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.
The bells they sound on Bredon, And still the steeples hum. "Come all to church, good people"- Oh, noisy bells, be dumb; I hear you, I will come.
Identity politics is not politics at all, since it precisely negates the political as such by re-construing political positions in ethnic terms, subsuming 'ought' under 'is.'
Every institution is inherently demonic.
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