“they bore their troubles with more fortitude” (ODAT, 6 January)
As soon as you see people ail and die of painful diseases or suffer bereavement and do so without complaint, self-indulgence, or descent into morbidity, whilst remaining cheerful and useful, the excuses are gone.
It is indeed possible to walk through anything with grace.
The only thing stopping me is the arch-dramatist, self, which is on the lookout for a plot idea. Self relishes challenges, because they offer the opportunity to storyboard. The storyboard then replaces the reality.
Getting well means dealing with one thing at a time, rather than abstracting oneself into the audience watching a gruelling performance that the audience, itself, has written.