Love is much nicer to be in than an automobile accident, a tight

“Love is much nicer to be in than an automobile accident, a tight girdle, a higher tax bracket or a holding pattern over Philadelphia.” – Judith Viorst

So speaks Judith Viorst, the wise and witty chronicler of modern hearts, who cloaked truth in humor and wrapped philosophy in laughter. At first, her words seem playful, even light. Yet beneath the charm lies a profound observation on the human condition — that love, with all its confusions and imperfections, remains one of the few experiences that give life its color, warmth, and meaning. Viorst reminds us that though love may frustrate, perplex, and challenge, it is still infinitely more bearable — more beautiful — than the countless inconveniences and burdens that weigh down ordinary existence.

When she says “Love is much nicer to be in…”, she is not denying love’s difficulties. Rather, she is comparing them to the everyday irritations that plague human life — the mechanical mishaps, the tight restrictions, the suffocating anxieties, the endless waiting. Each of the things she names — an automobile accident, a tight girdle, a higher tax bracket, a holding pattern — is a symbol of discomfort, frustration, or helplessness. In contrast, love, though often equally unpredictable, possesses the redeeming quality of joy. It can wound and heal in the same breath. It can weary, yet still make life worth living. Viorst’s humor hides an ancient truth: that love is not without pain, but even pain in love is sweeter than comfort without it.

The origin of this wisdom comes not from lofty theory, but from Viorst’s deep understanding of daily human life — especially in its ordinary struggles. As a poet and essayist, she wrote about marriage, parenthood, friendship, and loss with unflinching honesty. She knew that love, in the real world, coexists with traffic jams, bills, deadlines, and disappointments. Her humor becomes a gentle rebellion against cynicism — a way of saying: yes, life is messy, but it is still magnificent when love is present. Love, even when imperfect, transforms the mundane into something meaningful.

To the ancients, this truth would not have been foreign. Aristotle taught that happiness is not the absence of struggle, but the presence of virtue and affection within it. The Stoics said that a wise man does not seek a life free from discomfort, but one filled with purpose. And what greater purpose can there be than love? For love is the force that makes all burdens bearable. It turns waiting into patience, sacrifice into grace, and imperfection into beauty. Even the philosophers who sought serenity — from the East and the West alike — acknowledged that the heart’s connection to another is what makes all other hardships worthwhile.

Consider the story of Pierre and Marie Curie, who toiled together in cold laboratories, enduring poverty and exhaustion in pursuit of discovery. Their love was not soft or idle — it was forged in shared struggle, in sacrifice, in trust. Life gave them few luxuries, but it gave them each other, and in that companionship, they found a joy no fortune could surpass. Through the hardships of science and society, they remained devoted — proof that even amid discomfort and adversity, love can be the sweetest refuge. Their union was not without strain, but it was real, and in that reality lay its beauty.

Viorst’s humor, then, conceals a philosophy of acceptance and gratitude. She reminds us that life will always have its “tight girdles” — its constraints, frustrations, and waiting rooms of uncertainty. Yet, when we are in love, those burdens are softened. Love provides the cushion between the soul and the world’s rough edges. It transforms what would otherwise feel unbearable into something almost noble — because when love is present, even struggle feels shared, and shared struggle becomes sacred.

So, my listener, when the world feels heavy, when you find yourself caught in the holding pattern of circumstance or the collision of disappointments, remember this truth: it is better to be in love — even imperfectly — than to be without it entirely. For love, with all its laughter and pain, still teaches the heart how to live. Be grateful for it. Nurture it. Let it remind you that amid life’s accidents and absurdities, there remains one divine comfort — the warmth of a heart that beats for another. And in that warmth, all the cold machinery of existence becomes, for a moment, almost beautiful.