Saturday, November 17, 2007

PLATITUDES

The longer I live, the more my head gets filled with platitudes. Some of them are useful to me and others make no sense. I've never understood the following, for example: Reach for the Stars. Being a relatively cautious and logical person, I know, concretely, it is impossible for me to reach a star and thus do not attempt what I am convinced will be impossible. Keep your face in the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows I've always found the trick to life is to find a way out of the shadows when you can't see the sunshine. A light box works well for me in that literal situation of Seasonal Affective Disorder. Dance like nobody's watching. Lastly, why would I dance as if no one is watching. If I feel like dancing do I really care whether someone is watching or not?

There are some are good rules, like: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Another I find useful is: The way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Some are just good quotes to keep in mind, such as: I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires, or another Susan B Anthony quote: Independence is happiness.

Not unlike many others who like to think about and solve problems, I love this Joseph Barbera quote:
That's what keeps me going: dreaming, inventing, then hoping and dreaming some more in order to keep dreaming. Barbera also said, “Creating fantasy is a very personal thing, but you can’t take the process too personally” Platitudes, quotes, or any mnemonics I use to keep my mind aware of the rules that work for me is what keeps me functioning. When I tire of a senior repeating himself, perhaps trying to prove himself still of worth to the world, I remember my mother saying, quietly, in Greek, when my father repeated himself endlessly: Listen to an old man's words, not his flatulence. Another pithy quote from an unknown: (1)Everything depends. (2) Nothing is always (3) Everything is sometimes.

I do not pet strange dogs nor walk between a dog and a hydrant or tree. I do not wrestle with pigs in their home space or sty. Having gained adulthood, I no longer try to be center stage at all times. Once I learned the definition of infirmary, I try to stay out of them. I sleep when I am sleepy, even though it may mean waking up and finding my nose on the computer keyboard. I try to maintain a sense of humor through it all. From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere. (Dr. Seuss)





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