The Consolation of Philosophy

Yours To Keep

Some things go away.

A balloon can slip its string.
Up it floats, into the sky.
Gone, gone, gone.

Blocks fall down. The tall tower tips.
Sometimes you lose the game.
Sometimes a toy just breaks.

When it goes, you can feel sad.
Sad is okay. Sad is real.
You can cry. I will sit with you.

Now listen close.
Some things live inside you.
Nobody can take those.

Can they take how kind you are?
No. That’s yours to keep.

Can they take how brave you are?
No. That’s yours to keep.

Can they take the songs you make up?
No. That’s yours to keep.

Say it with me:
That’s yours to keep!

The balloon floated away.
But you are still you.
Kind you, brave you, singing you.

So when something goes,
feel the sad first.
Then give someone a hug.
Sing your song out loud.
Be kind, the way you know how.

Those are yours.
Nobody can take them.
That’s yours to keep.

A note for the grown-up

For the grown-up reading aloud: This comes from The Consolation of Philosophy, written around 524 by Boethius, a Roman official in prison and condemned to death. In it, Philosophy argues that what luck hands out (money, rank, fame) was only ever on loan, while the good inside a person, like kindness and courage, can’t be taken. This primer keeps only that part. The fuller book goes further and claims that nothing bad can truly harm a good person; adults still argue over that, so it stays out of the beats. Let the sad be real first. The point isn’t “don’t be sad,” it’s that the sad can be true and they still have what matters most.

Up And Down

Have you been on a swing?

Push, push, up you go.
Up, up, high to the sky!
Then whoosh, down you come.

Up and down.
Up and down.
That’s what swings do.

Can you stop the swing at the top?
Try it. Hold still, way up high.
You can’t!
A swing that stops isn’t swinging.

Some days feel way up high.
You win the race. The sun is out.

Some days feel way down low.
You scrape your knee. It rains all day.

Up and down.
That’s what days do.

Being down doesn’t mean you’re bad.
It doesn’t mean you did wrong.
It’s just the swing.

Everybody’s swing goes down sometimes.
Grown-ups too.
Even kings and queens.

Say it with me:
Up and down, that’s what swings do!

When you’re up, enjoy the sky.
Give your friend a push too.
When you’re down, hold on tight.
The swing keeps moving.

So hold the ropes,
and keep on swinging.

A note for the grown-up

For the grown-up reading aloud: This is the book’s most famous picture, Fortune’s wheel. Fortune says turning is her whole game, lifting people up and bringing them down, and asking her to stop at the top misunderstands what a wheel is. The swing swaps the picture and keeps the mechanism: rising and falling is what the thing does. The book never promises the turn back up comes soon for every loss, so the beats say only that the swing keeps moving. The line about being down not meaning you’re bad echoes the prisoner’s own complaint, that people assume the unlucky deserved it.

Who Stays

Your ice cream falls. Splat!
Down on the ground. All gone.
You feel so sad.

Look around.
Who comes over?
Who sits down next to you?

That’s a friend who stays.

When things are fun,
lots of kids come to play.
Big cake, lots of games.
Everyone wants a turn.

When things go wrong,
some kids run off to play.
That’s okay. Kids do that.

But some friends stay.
They hold your hand.
They sit with you a while.

Who stays?
A friend who stays!

Say it with me:
Who stays? A friend who stays!

A friend who stays
doesn’t need to fix it.
They just stay close.
Staying is enough.

Sad days are hard.
But sad days show you something.
They show you who stays.

And here’s the best part.
You can be the one who stays.
When a friend is sad,
go sit down next to them.

A note for the grown-up

For the grown-up reading aloud: In the book, Philosophy makes a surprising claim: bad luck is more useful than good luck, because good luck hides who your real friends are and bad luck shows you. She calls true friends the most precious of all riches. The book’s wider claim, that bad fortune is better for us than good, is a hard one even for adults, so this primer keeps only the friend part and turns it toward being a friend. The beats also soften the book’s edge about false friends; the kids who run off aren’t villains.