I took the girl wall-climbing.  She’s pretty good Mulan style – certainly neither my DNA nor example (as a child, I couldn’t even do the monkey bars).  There was one wall, however, she simply couldn’t climb no matter how much she tried.

I just told her “Sometimes the wall wins.”

I have some very close friends experiencing major challenges.  All you can really do at times is offer up prayers of hope, listen, walk together.  

But sometimes the wall wins. A former student just died of cancer at the age of 37.  The wall f______ won.

People can say things like keep climbing, don’t give up.  Find another way to conquer the wall, go around, go under.  True most of the time, not all.

Sometimes, you just go, ok wall, you win. I’ll come back when I’m older or stronger.  Or I’m going to find something else to do.