The Character of the Happy Worrier
I wrote this in 2016, as a riff on the excellent
Character of the Happy Warrior
by William Wordsworth.
A the time, I was helping to run "Peace of Mind" or PoM, the
University of Bristol student mental health society.
I think the aim was to take the theme of the original
(that of a person who, in the face of all of life's trials, faces it with the
best of their humanity)
and apply that to someone who in the face of anxiety, depression and other
mental health problems faced by so many of the students around me,
still manages to channel that into succeeding at their goals, even when
they can't see exactly what it is they're struggling with.
After re-discovering the original after browsing my bookshelf in wonderful company, I was
reminded of the handwritten version in an old notebook, and inspired to dig it out
and transcribe it here.
While I can't help but cringe somewhat at re-reading this after so long, I stand by
the intention, and against the idea that sincerity of feeling and expression is
something we should find cringeworthy at all.
Especially, as the poem says, some of the people I met through PoM, who in the face of
extraordinary adversity, were the most kind, patient and insightful I had the pleasure
of meeting in my time at the University of Bristol.
So while the imitation is short and clumsy, I still like it for it's intentions.
The happy worrier. Who is the happy worrier? Who are they we all can be and yet so often fail to see? It is the anxious spirit who when brought among the challenges life hath wrought, does grit their teeth and steel their thought against their worries of irrational haught. Whose endeavours are an outward light despite a path not always bright; who, with unnatural insinct does discern, their innermost feelings, despite their burn. Who dommed to go in company with pain fear and bloodshed, to make happiness wane hones their mind to glorious gain and in the face of these doth exercise a power which is our human natures highest dower, subdues them and conquers them, transmutes, bereaves of their bad influence, and their good recieves. Who through their unfair share of suffering and distress, is more alike to care and tenderness. It is we, the happy worriers who, with pain of spirit think, and do all of this while betraying no clue of how their worries take their due. This is the character of the happy worrier who we all can be, and yet so often fail to see.