She says, "You know the monkey bar rules"
As she kisses away his playground bruise
"You don't have to skip a bar each time
To make it to the other side"
She picked him up from out of the sand
And tied the shoelace that read, "Superman"
We all fall down
It's the gettin' back up that really counts
We live and we learn
To help someone up when it's their turn
In life there's only one guarantee:
Your feet won't always be on the ground
‘Cause we all fall down
She says, "I know what you're goin' through"
As she talks to the door of her daughter's room
"Your heart feels like it's broken in two
But, baby, I'm here for you"
The door opened and she stepped inside
She put her arms around her and said, "It's ok to cry"
We all fall down
It's the gettin' back up that really counts
We live and we learn
To help someone up when it's their turn
In life there's only one guarantee:
Your feet won't always be on the ground
‘Cause we all fall down
He's forty-five and his job is gone
Cleans out his desk and heads on home
Sees his kids out playin' in the yard
It's been a while since he's been hit so hard
He's as scared as a man can be
He tells his wife and she says, "Honey, look at me"
We all fall down
It's the gettin' back up that really counts
We live and we learn
To help someone up when it's their turn
In life there's only one guarantee:
Your feet won't always be on the ground
‘Cause we all fall down
We all fall down
It's a beautiful song musically as well as lyrically, and for nearly a decade it has been an athem for me. It speaks to the inevitably of difficulty: of times when we don't see how we're going to land or what comes next. ("In life there's only one guarantee: your feet won't always be on the ground.") It also speaks to the promise of hope: it's what we make of that difficulty that matters most. It reminds us that difficulty provides us an opportunity through which we might distinguish ourselves from those who are ignorant of the difficulty of others, from those who push people down, from those who are drowning in despair. ("It's the gettin' back up that really counts.")
But the song also goes beyond that "there will be tough times, brush yourself off and get back up" message. It speaks to the commonality of suffering. ("We all fall down.") And then it does something humbling: it offers an implicit acknowledgement that we are here to help each other. ("We live and we learn to help someone up when it's their turn.") The female figure in each scenario demonstrates this, in that she both encourages the one who's hurting to help someone else and serves as the person to help. It's miraculous, really: "you don't have to have to skip a bar each time" is her way of telling the boy that he doesn't have to skip a bar every time to show he's strong (compassion); "it's okay to cry" is her way of telling the girl that she's been hurt, too (affirmation); and, "we all fall down" is her way of telling the man that this setback doesn't have to define him (consolation). She sets an example for each of them to follow the next time someone else falls on the playground, is heartbroken, or loses his/her source of income.
All three of those concepts are at the heart of this project: a desire to pick myself up and dust myself off after a year of immense professional and personal difficulty and to become better as a result of it. (That = creating my own happiness and taking stock/giving thanks.) But it's also about so much more than that. It's about how healing from within is related to being compassionate and empathetic. It's the realization that, in the pursuit of taking responsibility for our own happiness, we would be wise to consider that creating beauty by helping others is a part of it.
That, dear readers, explains the blogging part of this project. Do I really want to plaster my intimate thoughts and personal struggle details on the internet? Probably not. But I realize that it's powerful to know you're not alone in the midst of a difficult experience. That's why I haven't offered biographical details -- I don't want to alienate anyone, and I want not sypmathy but kindred spirits and partnership in this project.
And that's that. We all fall down. It's the getting back up that really counts. We live and we learn to help someone up when it's their turn. In life there's only one guarantee: your feet won't always be on the ground. Because we all fall down.
-Me