Thursday, March 22, 2012

Quotes of Note

Oh, my darling chickadees, how neglectful I've been.  I've opened up a new post for this blog several times, only to find myself too exhausted to write anything worth reading, only to close the tab and think, "I'll write something later."

Well, it's later, and I still don't feel like I have much to contribute in the ways of wordy wisdom or any insight into my own particular life.  The changes that I've been working on to make myself a better person have kind of been frozen as I focus on simply getting through this semester.  In this struggle, I have to keep reminding myself what I'm actually going to remember and take away from college, and the awkward answer is that it probably won't be the number of messed-up degree plans I filled out, no matter how much trouble they're giving me in this moment.

I've had a very bizarre week.  Not to say it was bad, because I know what bad weeks are like, and this wasn't really one of them.  I just felt very detached from everything, school-wise, and maybe even a little friend-wise, for which I apologize.  When I enter these stressful periods, I turn to my favorite quotes to get me through.  However, I'm very, very picky about the quotes that I live by.  The quote HAS to be relevant to me and my life, and chances are, if it's overused, I'll hate it.  I have to believe it, and it has to be as close to its original form as possible.  And, in typical Erica fashion, the mushier and more romantic or cheesy it is, the more I'll hate it.

For example, there's a famous A.A. Milne (Pooh Bear author!) quote that gets thrown around a lot, and that I absolutely adore, but it's been stretched and tweaked to become a typical girly kind of quote.  If I remember correctly, Christopher Robin tells Pooh: "Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.:  I adore this quote, but only as it was said from Christopher Robin to Pooh.  I've seen it changed to have so many things added (especially, "...and twice as beautiful as you believe.")  I despise changes like that.  If it floats your boat, that's great, but I prefer the original so much more.  It's as it was intended to be said.


Then there's a quote by Marilyn Monroe that I absolutely DESPISE: “I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.”  I feel like it's become a classic women-trumping-their-boyfriends kind of quote.  But here's why I dislike it: Yes, I am selfish, impatient, and (very!) insecure.  I do make mistakes.  I can be out of control and hard to handle.  This is true.  But the tone of the quote implies that a man should be accepting of these attitudes and complexes, that he should take them lying down, or he doesn't deserve the woman.  No.  I am all of those bad things, but what kind of a person would I be if I weren't trying to change those bad ways and habits?  If that's the kind of person that I am, and then I tell a man that he doesn't deserve me at my "best"-- I shudder to think what my "best" would be.  I wouldn't deserve ANYONE if I had that sort of attitude.  If she had said something about how that's her worst, but she's trying to be better, then yeah, maybe I could see why so many people like this quote.  But as it is, I have a problem with the attitude that comes across with it.


Then there are quotes that I can appreciate, but do not feel any attachment to.  There's the PoA MOVIE quote (not the books!  I repeat, this quote is NOT in the books!) from Dumbledore: "Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light."  I had to think about this one for a long time, because I can't just read a pretty quote and make it my life motto.  Also, if you know me, you'd know that I would be very hesitant to accept this quote, as it's from Steve Kloves, not good old Jo herself.  I digress-- I had to think for a very long time before I decided that the quote wasn't just nonsense, but more along the lines of explaining how we have to make our own happiness, through our own power, even when we are in the most upsetting of situations.  Good.  That's a good quote.  But it doesn't really apply to me, nor did it make me stop and think about my life, so it would probably never go in a quote book of mine.  But I can see where it would apply to others, and I don't frown at this quote anymore, as I used to.


My goodness, I'm just realizing what a quote elitist I am.  I sincerely apologize if I've smacked down any of your favorite quotes.  If it makes anyone feel any better, my own quote book, where I write down anything that inspires me, is full of cross-outs and notes pasted on top of quotes that I've either outgrown or come to realize that they didn't make sense or were lame.  For example, my absolute FAVORITE quote growing up was by Les Brown: "Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."  I mean, I had this plastered on everything around my room, notebooks with it on the cover, written on all sorts of papers and whatnot... and then one day I realized how weird it was.  Shoot for the moon.  Okay, dream big.  Understandable.  Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.  ...What?  So, even if I dream big and go for it and fail, I'll still be somewhat successful?  No.  I'll have failed and will have learned a very important lesson and will ultimately be a better person for it, but I can't match that parallel with landing among the stars.  Maybe one day I will reread this quote and see the connection with my failure actually being a success of sorts, which would be equivalent to landing among the stars (a success that's different from landing on the moon, but still pretty awesome), but that day has not hit me yet.  My once-favorite quote now bothers me.


Again, I'm sorry if my snooty quote feelings are too hoity-toity.  To compensate, here are some of my favorite quotes (er... make that, CURRENT favorite quotes), and if you dislike any of them, you can call me out on them and explain why! :)


"Love is like a snowmobile racing across the tundra, and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.  At night, the ice weasels come." --Matt Groening
(KIDDING.  It's funny.  But it doesn't mean anything to me.)


"Not all that glitters is gold; not all who wander are lost." --J.R.R. Tolkein


"Ships in harbor are safe, but that's not what ships are built for." --John Shedd


"No rain, no rainbows."  --commercial


"Absence is to love as wind is to fire.  It extinguishes the small but kindles the great."  --Roger de Bussy Rabutin


"Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images that you hold about yourself.  They remember your beauty when you feel ugly, your wholeness when you are broken, your innocence when you feel guilty, and your purpose when you are confused." --Alan Cohen


"Giving is not really giving until it hurts." --Mother Theresa  (I'm actually not sure if this is the quote in it's proper form, and that bothers me, but until I can find a reliable source, I'll have to make do with this.)


"You are never alone or helpless.  The force that guides the stars guides you too." --Shrii Shrii Anadamurti


"Never miss an opportunity to make others happy, even if you have to leave them alone in order to do it." --Anonymous


"Be humble, for you are made of earth.  Be noble, for you are made of stars." --Serbian Proverb


"Hold firmly to your beliefs, but never so firmly that you cannot hear reason and accept the fact that you may be wrong." --Anonymous




There are more, of course, but these are the ones I've particularly been feeding off of to get me through this time in my life.  Perhaps at some point I will grow to dislike some of these, too, but until that moment comes, there you have it.  I apologize again for my elitist attitude... but I do challenge everyone to think about your favorite quotes and why you love them, what speaks to you in each quote.  Don't accept something just because it's pretty words (even my words, which aren't very pretty all of the time!).  Quotes are great to live by, but only if you truly understand them and believe what they're saying.