Tag: honesty

A WOUNDED deer leaps highest,
I’ve heard the hunter tell;
‘Tis but the ecstasy of death,
And then the brake is still.

The smitten rock that gushes,
The trampled steel that springs:
A cheek is always redder

Just where the hectic stings!
Mirth is the mail of anguish,
In which it cautious arm,
Lest anybody spy the blood
And “You’re hurt” exclaim!

Emily Dickinson

This is the “I’m fine” of poems.

“How are you?” asks the cashier, your aunt, a friend.

Here is what you say: “I’m fine.”

Here is what you want to say: “I’m worried about my job. My kids aren’t sleeping at night. There are five chipmunks digging up all of my gladiolus bulbs and I spent money on those things and I am beyond irritated. I have a new mole and I’m afraid. That root canal is going to be expensive. I don’t know when my next paycheck is coming. I would rather eat a hundred raw worms than cook supper tonight. I’m hurting. I’ve been depressed for a while but I’m not telling anybody about it. Today has been hard and tomorrow will be harder.”

You smile and say that you’re fine.

Has Emily not hit the nail on the head here? Why is “mirth . . . the mail of anguish” unless it’s because we think we can disguise sadness with a fake smile?

Why are we still doing this?

My goal for us is to no longer be that deer, that steel, that smiling cheek. Let’s be honest.