Life, Irony, and Charlie Chaplin...?

Quote credit: Charlie Chaplin

Photo credit: Misterjt; Flickr.com

"Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot."- Charlie Chaplin

I'm sure most people have seen this quote before, but I guess in the midst of stress from piling assignments on my desk, this one really struck me. 

So from the quote, obviously you can take away that some things in life seem like a tragedy, like the world is falling on you at the time when the specific event happens.  But the fun part is that when you look at it in retrospect, everything just seems funny, or amazing just because you got through it and came out stronger in the end.

 I tend to be a silent dramatic, meaning I won't tell the world what my problems are, but inside I think that some of them are worse than starving children in Africa (but that's because at the time, everything seems a lot worse than it actually is.) But then when I turn around and look at it down the road, all I can think is "Wow, I made it through. Awesome sauce." Quite literally, that's what I think.

Overtime you start to learn that not everything is the end of the world.  People make a big deal out of little things and in the end, they don't really matter.  As human beings, we are naturally dramatic.  And you can't deny that drama is EVERYWHERE in our lives.  Sometimes you try to avoid it, and it seems like it just latches onto you with a vengeance.  Then you think, "Okay....now what?"  

I look back at the time I was a freshman in high school and remember how I tripped up the stairs while changing classes, face planted into the stair, and then proceeded to throw my books all around, smashing my face into the cement wall.  Everyone laughed, and I wished I could just disappear right then and there.  When I look back on it now, all I can do is laugh and remind myself that I'm as graceful as a 2 by 4 (aka, not very graceful at all) especially in this kind of weather when it's icy and there's nothing you can do but try not to fall!!!

I'm sure there are many more moments to come in my life like that, just as I'm sure everyone else has a memory they are thinking about right now.  If you'd like, I encourage you to share it in a comment, because I love hearing funny stories about people. It reminds us all that we are only human, after all, and that we can mess up.  We can't all be perfect! (though I don't know about Angelina Jolie...) It's just another great thing about life, you never know what's going to happen next!

Just another quick note.  If you look at the picture that is associated with this quote, it looks like someone just spray painted the quote and picture onto a random pillar somewhere (could be wrong, but that's what I see.)  Most people look at spray paint on a wall and think "Oh My Gosh! Graffiti! Bad!" To them, it's the end of the world.  But when you look back at it in the long run, it's actually kind of funny that someone would put that there for the world to see.  Something that by its physical state seems to be bad, but when you actually read it, it's wonderful (and a little funny.) I love the irony in life sometimes.