Sunday, April 29, 2012

The second last day of April

What to write about as this month winds down . . . Most days I have at least a little bit of an idea, but tonight my mind is pretty blank. I think today will be dedicated to some of my favorite quotes. The inimitable John Green once said, "Maybe our favorite quotations say more about us than about the stories and people we're quoting." How true this is. So as I share these five quotes and explain why I like them I'm sure you'll learn something about me.


"You are going to live a good and long life filled with great and terrible moments that you cannot even imagine yet." -John Green. This is from John's latest novel The Fault In Our Stars. It's always important to remember how wonderful life will be. You hear people say over and over again about different times that it will be the "greatest time of your life." I've heard this said about high school especially. I don't get why. I would sure hope that high school isn't the greatest time of someone's life. And though of all the terrible moments that will happen to in the rest of life, I'm pretty sure the great ones will be more prominent.


"We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible." -Oscar Wilde. I remember reading this quote maybe a year or so ago. It's stuck with me ever since. I don't necessarily think it's only one great experience in life but there are definitely some moments that define life, moments that truly change us and put us on a different course of action. Sometimes I wonder whether I've had my one great experience, and occasionally I think I have.


"Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious." -Peter Ustinov. I'm not sure who this Peter character is but he's spot on. Humor and comedy are marvelous. I like to think I'm a funny person and along with my whole "happiness is a choice" mantra comes the mechanism of laughing instead of whatever the alternative is, whether that be crying or frowning or being sad in general. I'm not the kind of person who laughs while the situations are going on, like if you tell me your dog died I'm not going to laugh, but I'd much rather deal with problems in a humorous manner than in a strictly serious one.


"What is that expression in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the words I have read in my life." -Walt Whitman. I am quite fond of Whitman, I've realized. Even before I read the book Paper Towns, which is full of Whitman metaphors and analogies and whatnot, I loved this quote. Sometimes you just look at a friend, or even just a random person, and it speaks so loudly about who they are. There can be so much said about simple looks that really cannot be explained, at least not fully, by words.

And this last one is not a quote but rather a word coined by the magnificent CS Lewis. And that words is sehnsucht. It means "the inconsolable longing in the human heart for we know not what;" a yearning for a far, familiar, non-earthly land one can identify as one's home. The foremost scholar on Lewis came to one of my classes this semester and he made the following point: Tolkien said “good literature should awaken a longing for place.” Stories bring up a longing within us, and that longing was often for heaven, Lewis thought. He believed if you feel lonely it makes you a relational being. If you’ve ever felt lonely in a room full of other people, it shows you were made for a relationship no mere human relationship can satisfy. Basically, CS Lewis is the man.

So there you have it. Some quotes I find are awesome. Now go enjoy your lovely Sunday. Or whatever day you happen to be reading this on. 

Last YouTube video I watched: Kids On The Run (Tallest Man On Earth)

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