I heard the news today, oh boy...
I've always thought false hope was one of the cruelest things around. I've never been able to bear the thought of a child, so happy to get an ice cream cone, who then sees that ice cream fall to the ground before getting in a single lick. It seems so much worse than just wanting ice cream and knowing you can't have it. I can't take the image of a toddler, gleefully running along, happy to be alive, then suddenly running into a wall and falling down in pain. Or the thought of the special needs kids in junior high who would think people at school were befriending them, when really they were just being set up to be mocked. Or the idea of a kid getting a carnation Val-o-gram from someone at school on Valentine's Day, which wasn't really from someone who liked them, but was just meant to be a joke. (I dreaded this scenario for years and later found out it happened to someone I know.) Or having someone invite them to prom, or accept their prom invitation, then shopping and planning for the big night only to have the other person back out at the last minute (I think this may have happened to my husband).
Would you rather get an outright rejection on a manuscript, or a rejection after interest has been expressed in it, after you've done a whole rewrite on it at an agent or editor's request, and felt sure this was going to be the one? Or worse...what if you actually sell a manuscript, only to have the publisher cancel it later without publishing it? (Also happened to someone I know, and I heard about it happening to someone else, at least 18 months after the manuscript was acquired.)
In my case, I'd rather my husband hadn't gotten the job interview, or had never even heard of the job, than to have us imagining our new lives with the new job for the past month. Imagining turning a corner. Being able to plan again. Having insurance again. Having something we were both interested in, a job he could really care about and not just a way to make a paycheck. We tried not to get our hopes up, and told ourselves it was far from a sure thing. We knew it might not even be the best thing, if we could see the whole picture. But still. It seemed so perfect, like it would have made everything made sense, and it's been so very long. And now there's no more rope left to hold onto.
Would you rather get an outright rejection on a manuscript, or a rejection after interest has been expressed in it, after you've done a whole rewrite on it at an agent or editor's request, and felt sure this was going to be the one? Or worse...what if you actually sell a manuscript, only to have the publisher cancel it later without publishing it? (Also happened to someone I know, and I heard about it happening to someone else, at least 18 months after the manuscript was acquired.)
In my case, I'd rather my husband hadn't gotten the job interview, or had never even heard of the job, than to have us imagining our new lives with the new job for the past month. Imagining turning a corner. Being able to plan again. Having insurance again. Having something we were both interested in, a job he could really care about and not just a way to make a paycheck. We tried not to get our hopes up, and told ourselves it was far from a sure thing. We knew it might not even be the best thing, if we could see the whole picture. But still. It seemed so perfect, like it would have made everything made sense, and it's been so very long. And now there's no more rope left to hold onto.