Great hatred, little room. Much sadness, sparse joy. Many days of misery and tears, very few grand occasions. That's been the history of the Northern Ireland Troubles for the last 30 years.
But yesterday, at last, it was time for a celebration. There were fanfares by cockaded soldiers in fairytale uniforms who blew silver trumpets. There was a king and a queen and they looked the part, too. There was snow on the streets, with Christmas just around the corner, and children in bright clothes cheering as they sang about peace and lit eternal flames.
There were glamorous people, camera crews that focused on smiling faces and not twisted wreckage, politicians who wore broad grins and dropped tantalising hints about a compromise on the "Dword". There was champagne on ice, there was a banquet, there was even a little hope if you dropped your guard long enough.
It's a tradition after every year's Nobel ceremony that the winners appear on the balcony of the Grand Hotel in downtown Oslo to wave to a torchlight procession below.
David Trimble and John Hume appeared in their evening suits, the odd couple, awkward but amiable. They didn't know what to do with their hands, whether to wave or give a thumbs-up sign. Some onlookers nicknamed the pair "Urbi et Orbi".
There was a surge of cheering and general goodwill from the crowd, although some seemed weak on the specifics of the prizewinners and their role. "It's very good that they fight for the IRA," one young person commented.
Earlier in Oslo City Hall, under massive and intriguing Nordic murals, the two leaders received their gold medals and their Nobel diplomas. The £344,000 cheque comes separately, it was said, but both men say they haven't had a chance to consider how they will spend it.
John Hume, his big day come round at last, gave a medley of his greatest axioms. He took us again to that bridge between France and Germany where he meditated on how peace can emerge out of conflict.
David Trimble's donnish jokes failed to dissolve the austere Nordic physiognomies in front of him. He was on happier ground when he extolled the philosophies of Edmund Burke, Plato, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the writer and broadcaster, Eoghan Harris. Unionist sources insisted Mr Trimble had written the text in the US four weeks ago, although they confirmed Mr Harris had an involvement.
Mr Trimble had a covert "dig" at his co-recipient's visionary approach and questioned Sinn Fein's commitment to democracy, while hinting that there might be what one commentator called a "catflap" for the republican movement to come in from the cold on decommissioning.
He said he had not insisted on "precise dates, quantities and manner of decommissioning". He had sought only a "credible beginning". All he had asked for was a declaration that the so-called war was over - and this could be proved by such a beginning.
After the ceremony, the prizewinners, their families and guests adjourned to the Grand Hotel, with, among other famous faces, Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith and Bishop Edward Daly - grey now, but he will always be the dark-haired priest waving the white handkerchief on Bloody Sunday.