(Part 2 of 2)

Part one was important because I want it known that I value the whole but I don’t have it. I can’t truly know what Helen Keller meant when she wrote it. There wouldn’t be a whole book if she didn’t mean to say more so I have no way of knowing if my interpretation is what she meant when she said it. Moving on…

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”

It’s easy to forget how hazardous the act of living actually is. Our planet was almost hit by a comet in January (sort of.) Oaky maybe not, but a catastrophic event of that kind could happen and statistically will happen - someday.  It’s the “someday” that gets us. Not today. Not right now. When’s the next game? “Someday” lulls us into a false sense of security. It’s the “someday” that lets us think we can live our lives as we see fit without obstacles or consequences and both abound.

Thomas Merton fully believed that the idea of control was an illusion. And I think that is what Helen Keller is talking about too. If I look both ways before crossing the street I can prevent (control) getting into an accident. I had a friend who used the cross walk when it was his turn and he had his leg shattered by a drunk driver. Most people don’t want to think about how little control they have in their daily lives. I can’t control how other people act or when the friggin’ bus will arrive, I am out of control the minute I leave my house.

As I said before, the quote as it stands alone seems fatalistic to me. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we shall die. I don’t know anything about Helen Keller other than she was blind and deaf. I do know that if I was in her position I definitely would not be as upbeat about life as she was. Going on the tiny bit I know about her I would say that she is not a fatalist at all but more of an optimistic realist. It’s good to be reminded that I’m not in control but also to not let that stop me from living life to the fullest. She seems like a “life to the fullest” kind of person. The only thing I can truly control is my attitude about whatever happens to me and around me.  Life is daring adventure and it takes guts to do it right.

(Part 1 of 2)

In my house we have a door that is a collage of quotes. My personal favorite is:

“Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” By Helen Keller.

Who doesn’t want their life to be a daring adventure? And the quote is so go for broke, all or nothing. Either it is or it isn’t. I’ve mentioned before, perspective is everything. Mondays suck because you’ve decided so. I strongly believe you choose the reality you live in.

When I looked up the quote this is what I found:

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”

This totally changes the quote for me. Before it was a bold statement akin to childlike wonder and trust, now I’m thinking it quite fatalistic. Without any context for the quote it is hard to know what the actual intended meaning is.

And that really is my point. In our modern age people chop up content and make it what they want. I am just as guilty as the next person, but it does make me stop and think about what I read and what I say. I think in the case of this quote it is particularly interesting because no one wants to hear that life is uncertain and we have no control so we edit that part out and focus on the daring adventure bit.

Having said that, the book is out of print so I can’t get any context. Even if I want to understand what the author meant in the fullest, I can’t. This is all I get. I can take into consideration the author herself and the life she lived as a guide to understanding but it would still be just conjecture.

Does not having access to the context free me from the obligation of the author’s intent? As someone who tapes random quotes to a door in her house I say yes. As a writer and a student, I have to say no. I am all for taking meaning as you need it, but context is important for true understanding.

All I want to advocate is more thoughtfulness in the way we use words, especially someone else's.

If you take a look to the right you will see this blogs “archive.” If you would be so kind as to notice there are twelve months there. I have successfully completed one full year of blogging. I had made so many false starts that this is a real accomplishment for me. Happy anniversary…me?

  As you can tell from my description of this blog that I am not a fan of blogs and the chore of blogging used to make me tired just thinking about it. Until Elbie Free, it had been a struggle and some days it still is, but overall I’m feeling pretty good about this whole blogging endeavor. The hardest pieces to write are actually the “Ask an Expert” bits. Pairing well known dialogue with a scenario that makes it funny takes time. I love comedy, but writing comedy is a whole other animal. Writing comedy is pre-emptive humor and I am much better at on the spot snark. A life time of comic books and 80’s cartoons has taught me how to banter well.

My problem recently has been finding the time to write the blogs. I have several notes in my phone with ideas but I have to sit down and do the writing. And that is how I know I am ready to be a writer. The ideas are there and not stopping. Before it was a struggle trying to figure out what I want to say to the world. Not so any more. I’ve got lots to say and sometimes people get to read them.

I think the only thing I would change now would be the name of the blog. It was just Rants for a while, then I changed it to its current name, Rants and Raves because I wanted to be both complimentary and cynical. It abbreviates so nicely to RNR for my front page so that is why I am reluctant to change it again. And changing it again messes with the search engines. The next one I will call, Things I Think About. Which is really all I’m doing when I blog. I spend a lot of time in my head and sometimes I like to share it.

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013 should have been like any other Wednesday preceding or following it except for one thing: that stupid fortune cookie I got on Dec. 20, 2012.

Remember this?

I wanted it to be true. Is that such a terrible thing? I rather live in a world of impossibility than plausibility.  To hope for something fantastic or unexpected.  Like Alice. “So many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.” I didn’t get the book deal I was hoping for nor was I swept in something so cool I couldn’t believe it was happening to me. But Wednesday March 20th, 2013 was not a total loss.

A co-worker of mine gave me a brand new pair of dress shoes that fit her in the store but not when she got home. I was in need of some new shoes for work. I’ve spent the last several weeks passing through stores, waiting to find the intersection of cuteness and price point. The shoes I have received I would not buy, but I like them all the same. They came when I needed them and they fit.

Coincidence? Probably. But I chose to believe the shoes were because of the fortune cookie. It makes for a more interesting story.