from Maria Semple's "Today Will Be Different"

2019.08.30
I don’t mean to ruin the ending for you, sweet child, but life is one long headwind. To make any kind of impact requires self-will bordering on madness. The world will be hostile, it will be suspicious of your intent, it will misinterpret you, it will inject you with doubt, it will flatter you into self-sabotage. My God, I’m making it sound so glamorous and personal! What the world is, more than anything? It’s indifferent. [...] But you have a vision. You put a frame around it. You sign your name *anyway*. That’s the risk. That’s the leap. That’s the madness: thinking anyone’s going to care.
I was brought up Catholic too, you know. When I was seven, they were teaching us about the loaves and the fishes. I raised my hand and said, “That couldn’t really happen.” Sister Bridget, not happy, responded, “Faith requires the mind of a child.” I said, “But I am a child.” She replied, “A *younger* child.” I thought, What a load of malarkey, and never looked back.
Just because you’re calmer than I am doesn’t mean you’re morally superior.