Give Yourself a Consolation Prize — At Least You Can Do This One Thing
There’s usually just one little thing that could make your day a little better
At the end of “The Wire,” a well-meaning police commissioner tries to fight against corruption and reform a department that arrests people for no reason and consistently engages in police brutality. He refuses to do what the council president wants and refuses to be a puppet for politicians, so he is forced out of his job.
At the very end, he gets to swear in officers who are promoted to sergeant or lieutenant. One of his proteges is promoted to lieutenant, a silver lining in light of incredibly negative circumstances.
“At least I can do this,” he says, smiling as he unceremoniously ends his career.
Most days, we don’t win everything. Not everything goes the way we want. The overall tone is more lukewarm and ambivalent than we would like to admit. Of course, there are fantastic days where we feel on top of the world and days that are complete shitshows and we need to wipe the slate.
Those of us who suffer from depression, grief and tragedy, an abusive marriage, or other terrible circumstances, unfortunately, have more of the latter days than the former.
