Nora Ephron has a wonderful book of essays called I feel bad about my neck. In The story of my life in 3,500 words or less she talks about the time she sat with a friend in a small movie screening room. It became so overfilled that people were asked to share seats. Vexed by this, she turned to her friend and observed that someone should set up folding chairs in the aisles.
Her friend calmly replied, ‘Nora, we can’t do everything’.
This was a revelation to Nora – she felt as if she’d ‘been given the secret of life’.
And its a wonderful reminder for those of us who think we can, or should, fix everything in the world around us. Trying to do everything can be terribly frustrating, both for us and for the unsuspecting victims of our efforts.
We simply cannot do everything. Sometimes it’s better to just sit back and enjoy the movie.
