mirroring

There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of living.

- Excerpt from The Count of Monte of Cristo

And indeed, comparison is a huge word. People compare on every thing.  Is my dress fancier than yours?  Does my la flor dominicana taste finer than that of the new guy in Americana? Or have I been left behind or have moved forward? Nothing wrong with comparing, only if it will not drive you despair. The better question is, what will I do with what I have?

hands to heaven

All the pious ideas that had been so long forgotten, returned; he recollected the prayers his mother had taught him, and discovered a new meaning in every word; for in prosperity prayers seem but a mere medley of words, until misfortune comes and the unhappy sufferer first understands the meaning of the sublime language in which he invokes the pity of heaven! He prayed, and prayed aloud, no longer terrified at the sound of his own voice, for he fell into a sort of ecstasy. He laid every action of his life before the Almighty, proposed tasks to accomplish, and at the end of every prayer introduced the entreaty oftener addressed to man than to God: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us."

-excerpt from The Count of Monte Cristo