Fall Down; Get up

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” Good advice, inspiring words, but sometimes when we fall, “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men,” cannot get us up again. Sometimes we are knocked down for the ten count. Working in my wild, naturalistically landscaped yard, I have fallen “seven” times. Always gotten up. However, in January 1999, I was stretched out at the top of a sixteen-foot ladder, reaching out and up another ten feet with a pruning saw to cut mistletoe out of a mesquite tree. I found myself talking to myself: “Roark, you are sixty-five years old; your bones are brittle with age; you’ve got to stop doing this. If you fell, you would break something, perhaps your neck or a hip.” I would not have been able to get up and climb back up the ladder. I’ve not pruned the mistletoe in nine years.

“Watch your step,” we’re told, “Don’t fall down.” But the road of life is too precarious, falling is inevitable. Pay attention as we may, life will trip us up from time to time. Why did Humpty-Dumpty fall? Was he pushed? Did he lean over too far and lose his balance? Was his seat slippery? Whatever, it was a great fall. We all fall down. Some slip on ice, some are knocked down, some are thrown from horses, some are tripped. Broken hearts, grief, disappointment, bankruptcy put some of us down.

Some have that something in their makeup that enables and drives them to get back up no matter how often nor how hard they fall. They don’t need Japanese proverbs. Others just don’t seem to have the stuff in them to pull themselves back up, especially if they have a Humpty-Dumpty fall. The Japanese proverb merely pushes them further down. The great majority, however, can get up eight times, but needs encouragement if they are to keep getting up again and again. The proverb may provide an adequate stimulus, but often more is needed. Discouragement is one of the most universal human emotions. Everyone needs encouragement occasionally. That is where we can step in, offering a hand to the fallen, a word and smile that can restore confidence. Few things are as needed or as productive. And anyone can do it.