Get a grip on yourself
by Bob on January 17, 2008
"Get a grip on yourself".This is indeed sage advice. I was just talking about this with a dear friend in England who was going through some emotional times. After all, don't we all ?
But also it was a brilliant 1977 single "Get a Grip on Yourself" by The Stranglers. It was from their 1977 album "Rattus Norvegicus".
But it's sometimes hard to factor out our romantic nature and otherwise seemingly irrational emotions (but thankfully we are irrational some of the time, lest we be a cold Mr. Spock and even he felt emotions occasionally especially in Vulcan mating season) from what is cold logic. In fact cold logic is very unappealing to most romantic people. One thinks that perhaps there are some vocations which demand cold rationality. But it's frankly a crashing bore.
The twist is that sometime we know what we should do, especially in love, and can't do it because despite our wisdom of the intellect, our wisdom of the heart wins out. So we are helpless in this very human condition and situation. We have to live it all out.
One is also reminded of the Tin Man, or Tin Woodsman, in the Wizard of Oz, who had lost his heart because the tinsmith had neglected to put it back or in. So the Tin Man could no longer love the girl of his dreams. That wasn't a lot of fun so he went off to the Wizard in Oz to get a heart.
So, we should get a grip on ourselves but still have a heart. Now that's quite a challenge for the human condition.