Mamakat: Favorite Quotes

I tend to collect quotes.  I'm probably not that much different from most people who read many books in that regard.  Some words just stick, winnowing their way into your head, or your heart, while you're engrossed in the story.  You find yourself thinking of them at odd moments, or after a long day.  Some words can build you up or help you gather your courage. During my cancer treatment I have grabbed onto quotes about resilience, or survival, because I needed them. 

But I've got others. 

One of my favorite books is Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens.  It's a humorous tale of "what if" involving angels and devils, good and evil, with blurry lines in between.  But it is this quote that stuck with me, because it is so positive, so happy.  It's pleasant to think of a group of boys running through the park at breakneck speed, a cheerful yellow dog chasing after them.  There are infinite options available to boys at that age, at least when I imagine it. 

“If you want to imagine the future, imagine a boy and his dog and his friends. And a summer that never ends.”
― Neil Gaiman, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch


Which brings me to my next quote: 

This one resonates with me.  It's why I work in the field I do.  Children are to be treasured like the gems they are.  No child should ever be harmed in any way, not anywhere.  Their potential should be nourished and cherished, not destroyed.  In my opinion, people who harm children, including those who deny their parents the food stamps they might need to feed them, are as evil as any warlord in Africa.

The last quote I'm sharing today is one I collected in high school from John Steinbeck.  Choice is something very powerful.  People without choices feel powerless.  Those who are allowed to have choices in their lives feel in control, powerful.  Those choices may not always be the best ones, but the great thing about choice is that sometimes you can choose a different path. That's quite humbling.

“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.”
― John Steinbeck, East of Eden



Kat Bouska of Mama's Losin' It fame has a writer's workshop on Thursdays where people can share.  This is the prompt I chose:

6. Share a favorite quote (or group of quotes) that you enjoy and describe what they mean to you.

My New Favorite Quote

I decided at some point last month that I needed a new quote.  I am always looking for awesome quotes; I write them down carefully and save them for quiet moments of contemplation.  My last quote was "When in doubt, reboot", but cancer isn't rebootable.  

I asked.  Twice, just to be sure. 

So that quote was out, at least for now.  The search was on for a new quote that was applicable to my current situation.  And the internet was happy to share its collective wisdom with me, in the form of advertisement.  I don't usually pay attention to ads, because they tend to be about how I can lose weight with "this one weird trick" or about how Ellen has been lying about something all these years. But my brain is genetically attracted to shiny things, and this caught my eye.  I  clicked on the ad to see what the full quote on the shiny bracelet might be.

"She stood in the storm, and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails."

Something about those words resonated within me. I'm not a sailor-type of individual.  I don't spend a great deal of time on the water or on a boat or anything.  But the idea of adapting to circumstances, no matter what they may be, means something to me.  I looked up the quote, and found that it came from Elizabeth Edwards.  She certainly epitomizes someone who has adapted to circumstances, what with all the drama she's had to go through.  And she is a model of resilience as well as of adaptability.  I can admire that.  I've made it this far in my life because I'm willing to adapt to the circumstances I find myself confronting.  That isn't going to change.

I mean to survive this latest adventure I'm on.  To survive I need to be adaptable to the circumstances I find myself in, just like I've always done.  I'm an emotional cauldron of anger, self-pity, anxiety, and general crankiness on most days.  Instead of curling up in a ball, I force myself to stand up, face whatever I have to, and get through it.  And that's what I am doing with this latest storm.  Except now I have this fancy bracelet with the inspirational quote to remind me to adjust my sails when the wind doesn't blow my way. 

Plus, it looks pretty snazzy on my wrist!   

Just A Few Words

"Just one more page..."  I love to read, and often I get so lost in the pages that it is difficult to pull my attention away to attend to the important things in life, like sleeping.  As a teenager I can remember staying up all night with a good book or two.  Or three.  I gladly suffered the headache of sleep deprivation the next day.  Along my travels through a book or magazine, I find pictures, snippets, passages, and quotes and other items that I mentally sock away for another day.  These are some of my treasures that I take out of my memory and think about during staff meetings and lengthy church sermons.  No, I don't quote the Bible, although there's much wisdom to be found among its pages, no matter what your religion.  Judge not, lest ye yourself be judged, for example.  Great stuff, and certainly worth contemplating, but I don't want to get into any sort of pissing contest over who has the best taste in biblical quotes.  I want no part of that, thank you very much!


"A smile relieves a heart that grieves."  -The Rolling Stones   Yes, this is not a quote from a book.  It's actually a quote from a song, "Waiting on a Friend", by one of my favorite bands, The Rolling Stones.  Mick Jagger and Keith Richards should write a book about marriage.  They've been married as long as they've be together, musically speaking.  I digress; this quote reminds me, when I'm in the cesspool of depression, that smiling or changing my perspective can help give me the strength to begin the long trek back into the "normal" range of emotional stability. 

"Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel."  I have no idea who said this, but I love it.  Trust in God, it says, and that's certainly something to strive for.  However, it's the second part of the quote that makes it work.  "Tie up your camel" means to be prepared for anything that may manifest as a result of your faith.  If you pray for a new job, for instance, that new job might be in another town or in another field.  We need to be ready to accept whatever we are offered.  As my son is often heard saying, "You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit!" 

"Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."--Friedrich Nietzsche  Nietzsche seems like a real buzzkill.  He probably didn't get invited to too many parties.  This quote is really a variation of "Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas."   We can become what we hate if we are not careful.  Republicans and Democrats consider each other evil, but their behaviors aren't really that different.  Think about that horrible, evil church in Westboro and the people who attend there.  They may have been nice people, once upon a time.  But their hatred has consumed them, until what is supposed to be a 'Christian' church is warped, their views mangled. That abyss is not a good place to be! 

"If life gives you lemons, make lemonade."  (Corollary: "...and try to find somebody whose life has given them vodka, and have a party."--Ron White)   Making lemons into lemonade is good.  Again, this quote is all about perseverance, and making do with what you have.  Nothing goes to waste.  Do what you can with what you have, and that will suffice.

"[You all can] go to hell, and I [am going] to Texas"--Davy Crockett  As Jules from Pulp Fiction might say, "That's a bold statement."   And indeed, it is a bold statement.  Davy Crockett didn't know what he was getting into when he came to Texas. Nobody ever does. Crockett had no idea he would be fighting and dying at the Alamo, but if he did, I'd like to think that he would have gone anyway. He was a larger than life character, after all, one who had cheated death before. We all need that courage to "boldly go" into unexplored areas. That is how discoveries happen.

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”--Eleanor Roosevelt  This statement tells me that I have some control when it comes to how I respond to what comes at me. I can choose to feel horrible just because someone put me down. Or I can let the insult fall away like water. It is not always easy, but the choice is mine.


And this is extra, but I find it appropriate.  We're all writers here, right?  Well, Elmore Leonard books are certainly hilarious.

“Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing

1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
 

What about your neck of the woods.


Mamakat's Awesome Prompt:

1.) List 6 of your favorite quotes.

Endurance

This weekend we are venturing into uncharted territories once again.  This Trifextra isn't so much a writing challenge; it's more of a reading challenge.  We want you to scour through your favorite pieces of literature and give us the best 33 words you can find.

Some quick guidelines:

• The writing you choose should not be your own.
• The 33 words should be lifted directly from another source (i.e. don't take 33 random words from Macbeth and shake them into a poem of your own (though that would be an awesome idea for another challenge) and don't take a sentence from the beginning of a book and another from the end--keep the original order).
• Credit your sources.
• You can't use the same 33 words as anyone else in the linkz. Skim through before posting your own.  You can use the same author and even the same title, just not the exact same words.

Ack! Do you people realize just how many books I've read in my life?  This was an impossible task, so I narrowed it down to books I've read more than once.  Lonesome Dove,  Howards End,  Mrs. Dalloway,  East of Eden, that Tolkien dude...  And then I thought of a worn red paperback that I randomly found one rainy day at the library back in 1979.  Book One of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Lord Foul's Bane, by Stephen R. Donaldson.  That random book stuck with me because I felt so much like Thomas Covenant at the time.  It was also my first experience with reading a series that didn't involve the Hardy Boys.  I've repurchased copies two or three times over the years, as the previous ones disintegrate.


"...he was dreaming.  The way to endure a dream was to flow with it until it ended. He had to make that descent in order to survive. That need outweighed all other considerations."