Tragedy?!

So I read this quote the other day and it kind of got me thinking. It was by George Bernard Shaw, who, in my opinion, is one of the best playwrights of all time. Plus he's Canadian (he's actually not, apparently. He's Irish. I am very upset to say that I did not know this. Whatever, there's a whole festival of plays every summer named after him in southern Ontario.). I love him. Even though he's been dead for quite a long time. Whatever.

Anyway, the quote was "There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it." I'm sure lots of you have heard this quote before. It's not exactly unpopular. But it really got me thinking. Obviously not getting your heart's desire would be very terrible. I define heart's desire as the thing that you want above all else in the world, in the very bottom of your heart. For people who read Harry Potter, it would be what you see when you look in the Mirror of Erised, from the Philosopher's Stone. So I think not getting your heart's desire would be really terrible. But only if you worked for it. If you did absolutely nothing to achieve your heart's desire and still expected to get it...no, not such a big tragedy. Example: say you wanted to be an actor on Broadway. If you had an agent, took acting classes, went to auditions regularily, was part of a local theatre troupe, that kind of thing, but you still never managed to make it onto Broadway, I think that would constitute a tragedy. But if you just sat around, never took an acting or singing class, wasn't involved in any kind of theatre or drama group, wished on shooting stars and at 11:11 that you could one day be on Broadway, but didn't really do a whole lot of much else, and never made it to Broadway...well, I would have a lot of trouble feeling sorry for you, you know?

So that is my take on the first half of the quote. But what about the second half? It is a tragedy to get your heart's desire? I'm not sure I really understand that. I mean, in my earlier example, if you were the second person, who did little to work towards their desire, but still got it? I could understand that being a tragedy. You don't learn anything! You don't learn the value of hard work, determination, and commitment to your dreams. All you learn is that...sometimes you can get really luck. Not good.

But what if you're the first person? What if you do everything possible to work towards your heart's desire, and you get it? To me, that's amazing! It really shows that hard work pays off, that you can achieve whatever you set your mind to, if you work for it. So why is that a tragedy? I'm not sure. Let me know what you guys think!! Seriously. I wish GBS wasn't dead; I want to ask him about this.

love <3
:)