I get a word of the day emailed to me from word genius and its pretty cool. Today's word was hamartia, which is of Greek origin and is a term for a tragic flaw or a critical shortcoming. They also provide a few use cases of the word and both of the example sentences really stood out to me today:
1) Her hamartia was that she never saw opportunities in her life until it was too late.
2) The hero would have transcended into legend if it weren't for his major hamartia.
These both make me feel immense gratitude for being a recovering drug addict. "Her hamartia was that she never saw opportunities in her life until it was too late." With addiction, I can either face everything and recover or f*ck everything and run. The good news is that its never too late as long as I'm still breathing. The gratitude I have reading this first example is due to the irony I see in the fact that I personally have major hamartia, yet BECAUSE of it I am seeing new opportunities in my life. Opportunities I would never have had otherwise.
Legend vs. legacy: the former is what you do in life, and the latter is who you are in life. I also see this second example as ironic because while I will never be a legend, my hamartia has forced me to change who I am from a homeless drug addicted thief to a recovering addict. The process never ends, I never "got it"....it's medicine/work I need to do every single day.
Today I am grateful for my hamartia. I'm grateful that I have seen the lows and highs in life and am hovering at a stable, very much acceptable level of happiness in life. I couldn't ask for more.
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