As far as people versus things, the only thing I can say is, don't cry for something that can't cry for you.
Meh, I always have cried for things over people because things have always be one of the few things I can really count on, people on the other hand hardly ever are there for me. And let me tell you this, it was for not lack of trying on my part, and yes it was with just about every person I have known so I am not just looking at the cup half empty:\.
I'll take my things and ideas thank you very much
. Just because we cope in different ways does not I think, make one way better than the other. If everyone agreed, the world would be a boring place...
We've lost many artists (and their potential work) over the years because they tried a little too hard to reject the world and didn't take care of themselves.
Who said anything about using drugs? I know I didn't...
Anyhow...Many of them, I really don't think it was that they rejected the world, I think it was just the other way around. They took so much of the world into themselves, so much of what others thought, that they simply could not handle it anymore. If they did not care about the world they would not take the issues of it so to heart IMHO. Weather they felt they were giving too much or too little of themselves was based in the end I think from listening to their peers wishes that they live up to the name they made for themselves. It was this pressure I think, that stopped many from doing anything about their basic needs.
And on the other hand, like I said before, it can simply not be about rejecting or taking in the outside world at all, it is just a matter of putting your art before yourself period. Foolish? Maybe. A shorter life? Perhaps. Worth it for some? I think so. Selfish? Without a doubt. But without short lived authors and their selfishness and wanting to write for writings sake we would not have many of the classics we do today. Telling those people "don't put so much of yourself into your art and think of yourself or you won't live as long" would be like asking fish not to swim, it just doesn't work that way for them...
Sarah could have been a great writer if she had put her mind to it, and even if the labyrinth had not changed her a bit, I think she would at the least been more of a friend than anything to Toby later in life. That is ten times better than how I have seen many siblings interact when they are older
"Pain is a fact of life in this fallen world, and we cannot escape it. In fact, the goal in life is not to get away from the pain of it, but to endure through it, in fact, to triumph over it, while learning the lessons only pain can teach us."
That's all well and good if the pain is a minor passing thing, but if it strikes us at our core and lives within us everyday, then it is not so much a matter of over coming it as living with it. Some things simply don't go away ever.