My friend J. often refers to the “stone in the shoe” analogy. I have no idea if she made it up but it’s a very wise commentary on the human condition.
It goes like this:
If you are walking around and you get a stone in your shoe, it can be uncomfortable but you have a choice. You can ignore the stone and keep walking or you can stop and take it out.
Problems are like this, too.
Some things nag at you but you don’t do a damn thing to change them. Those are the small stones. You can feel them and they irritate you, but for some reason you enjoy the pain. You would feel incomplete without the stone digging into your flesh.
Other things (aka stones) bug you so much you take care of them right away.
I’ll bet J. doesn’t know this (unless she’s a secret fan) but the Scorpions have a song about this. It goes, in part, like this:
Ooh, when your world comes tumbling down
Ooh, you better find a way around
Ooh, cause no one else but you
Ooh, can find the stone inside your shoeInside your shoe
Inside your shoe
Inside your shoe
Yeah