There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.

What draws people is not the absence of suffering but the way someone carries it, and the carrying that impresses is rarely dramatic. It looks like continuing to do ordinary things, staying decent to the people nearby, not making the room manage your state. Everyone recognises it when they see it, partly because most of us know how hard it is.

Nothing in this asks you to hide what you feel, and there is no failure in falling apart. The offer is smaller: on a bad day, choosing one ordinary thing and doing it properly tends to steady you as well as everyone watching. Dignity is mostly made of very small acts.