What now?

Nessa semana eu li um livrinho fofo que estava recomendado como "livro do mês" na biblioteca virtual que eu estou usando para estudar pra uma prova. Nem precisa perguntar porque eu estava lendo o livro e não estudando, eu digo: esse livro era muito mais divertido!

O livro chama "What Now?", de uma escritora americana chamada Ann Patchett, e é desse tipo de livrinho cheio de fotos que eu acho que classificaria como "inspirational" nos EUA. Aqui, que eu saiba, não tem uma classificação. É, na verdade, um discurso que ela fez na formatura de uma universidade, em que ela fala de todas as vezes em que nossa vida chega num momento de incerteza sobre o futuro. Nesse trecho que eu copiei aqui embaixo, ela fala da ansiedade de tomarmos um caminho que parece ter uma importância definitiva nas nossas vidas.


"As quickly as you think that everything is set, it all becomes unglued again. A huge part of this is simply luck, the element of life both good and bad that is beyond our control. Sickness comes into the picture of perfect health, true loves catches your eye just as you were setting your foot on the train that would have taken you away forever. Babies are born, jobs are lost, fortunes are made. Wars and suffering pull us backwards while science gives us a second chance we never thought possible. Even if you have it all together you can’t know where you’re going to end up. There are too many forces, as deep and invisible as tides, that keep us bouncing into places where we never thought we’d wind up. Sometimes the best we can hope for is to be graceful and brave in the face of all of the changes that will surely come. It also helps to have a sense of humor about your own fate, to not think that you alone are blessed when good fortune comes your way, or cursed when it passes you by. It helps if you can realize that this part of life when you don’t know what’s coming next is often the part that people look back on with the greatest affection. In truth, the moment at which life really does become locked down, most of us are overcome by the desire to break it all apart again so that we can reexperience the variables of youth." (Ann Patchett)