Here's a lofty request- I am looking for some great thinkers. It has come to my attention recently that I have a deficit in the great thoughts department. A friend and I were talking recently about the wisdom you get from your parents, specifically aphorisms that stay with you through adulthood. The ones I remember are so situationally specific (and sometimes kooky) that I cannot even count them in this survey. This is not a slam on my parents- I have already discussed the pragmatism that runs in my bloodline. It's good to have a little advice on hand about specific situations in life.
But lately, also, I've been kind of hooked on the Happiness Project blog on Slate.com. This woman has got the sayings in spades- all kinds of meaningful thoughts on happiness and what is important in life. I know she probably has access to helpful quote anthologies and the like (a good shortcut for me? hmmm), but still, it strikes me as so desirable to be able to turn back to some book I got a lot from once in my life, and revisit the ideas, and see what they can do for me again. But wait, you say, didn't J. actually study these thinkers? In KOLLEDGE? Doesn't she already have a stable full to ride around when she wishes? Sort of, is the answer. But there are a lot of writers I never read, or barely did, the non-fiction writers in particular. I have some ideas of where to start, holes I already know about, like Emerson and Thoreau. But what else is out there for me? What, people?
It doesn't have to be the classics, also. If you think Stephen Covey is a genius, for example, I'm interested in hearing that. If you like some ancient mystic or other, again, interested! Frankly, whatever you have liked lately, or whatever you have come back to, I am interested. Show me what you got. I'd also love to hear just the quote or just the line that you return to.
And for inspiration, I dedicate this post to Baby H-C. She was a long time coming for her new parents, and she is going to change their lives like no great thinker ever did. Best wishes to the H-Cs- wish I could be there for some overnight baby holding!
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4 comments:
Thanks for turning me onto that Happiness Project blog -- it's very interesting. I am afraid I have nothing equally valuable to offer, but I promise to keep a look out. :) -liz
Every saying in our house rhymes. If you throw it on the floor, you don't have it any more! No hitting, no spitting, no fighting, no biting! Make hay while the sun shines (ok, that one doesn't rhyme, but you get the picture).
Oh! Oh! I remembered one that I use all the time, which actually does fall into the Lofty Historical Pull-Quotes category, and it is this: "They also serve who only stand and wait." I attribute it to Eleanor Roosevelt, but I've been wrong before. Lofty quotes about waiting are helpful right? Maybe one of my kids will chant it to herself like a mantra one day, as she patiently waits for someone to return with two marshmallows.
Awwww, thanks! We'll keep you posted on our new great thinker ;)
Mama Howard-Chou
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