A voice within me is sobbing, “You see, that’s what’s become of you. You’re surrounded by negative opinions, dismayed looks and mocking faces, people, who dislike you, and all because you don’t listen to the advice of your own better half.”
Believe me, I’d like to listen, but it doesn’t work, because if I’m quiet and serious, everyone thinks I’m putting on a new act and I have to save myself with a joke, and then I’m not even talking about my own family, who assume I must be sick, stuff me with aspirins and sedatives, feel my neck and forehead to see if I have a temperature, ask about my bowel movements and berate me for being in a bad mood, until I just can’t keep it up anymore, because when everybody starts hovering over me, I get cross, then sad, and finally end up turning my heart inside g out, the bad part on the outside and the good part on the inside, and keep trying to find a way to become what I’d like to be and what I could be if… if only there were no other people in the world.
Yours, Anne M. Frank
There is one existing video of Anne Frank, taken before she went into hiding. She’s watching from a window as a bride and groom pass by on the street below.
The heartbreaking image of someone who was so courageous and optimistic during one of the most disgraceful times in our history becoming so despondent and meeting the end of her life in a despicable cesspool of hatred is always going to stick with me, and I will gladly carry that weight. Yet I remind myself, and you (though I likely don’t need to), how fortunate we are to have her words in our lives.
Photo Credit: annefrank.org
I will forever owe an endless debt of gratitude to Anne for being a voice of hope that we can all cling to when we are in turmoil.
