Entries tagged with pride

Entry tags:

Pride

Random quote of the day:

“A confessional passage has probably never been written that didn’t stink a little bit of the writer’s pride in having given up his pride.”

—J. D. Salinger, Seymour: An Introduction

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Desus and Mero, Beyoncé, or the Marine Corps Marching Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Entry tags:

Education

Random quote of the day:

“Our purpose is to educate as well as to entertain. Painless preaching is as good a term as any for what we do. If you're going to come away from a party singing the lyrics of a song, it is better that you sing of self-pride like “We're a Winner” instead of ‘Do the Boo-ga-loo!’”

—Curtis Mayfield, as quoted in The Sociology of Rock by Simon Frith

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Key and Peele, Celine Dion, or Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Entry tags:

Pride

Random quote of the day:

“Pride is still a movement.
Pride is still resistance.
Pride is still protest.

Black Lives Matter is a movement.
Black Lives Matter is resistance.
Black Lives Matter is protest.”

—Jarrett Hill, Town and Country, June 24, 2020

Entry tags:

Tears for Whitney

I won’t pretend that I was a big fan of Whitney Houston. I didn’t dislike her. I admired her incredible voice and that spark she had in her youth. It’s been tragic watching such a gifted woman take a long, painful slide to the bottom. She died way too young and I can’t help wishing that somebody, somewhere had been able to help her help herself. Because other people do not make you sober. That’s something that has to come from within.

Still, I shed tears for her this morning. It wasn’t the rehash of the Grammy tribute, her powerful version of I Will Always Love You, or any of her other hits. It was, of all things, hearing her sing the Star-Spangled Banner. That moment was such a triumph for her, coming at a time right after 911 when America was on the ground, desperately looking for a way to get back up and move forward. Whitney Houston’s simple but amazing rendition of the national anthem somehow encapsulated America’s yearning for a reason to keep going. She was truly and utterly ours in that moment, and she gave us the gift of hope and pride that helped us find our own way towards recovery.

But there was, apparently, no one who could give her the same gift. Maybe they tried, and she just couldn’t translate that help into something that worked for her. Even if it turns out that drugs and alcohol played no part in her death, they still had a hold on her, making her a mockery of her former glorious self. She hit the ground hard and never really got up, though she struggled on and off to get her feet back under her. For whatever reason, her inner demons were stronger than her wonderful gifts.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Entry tags:

Progress, of sorts

Another 700 words today, which I feel good about. Unfortunately, they were not for the novel that's nearing completion, Venus in Transit. Today was all about writing the opening of the next novel, tentatively called Time in a Bottle (which may not live long, it's just what I came up with on the spur of the moment). It felt really good writing those words! They flowed easily and without any stomach churning.

Which tells me many things, not all of them good for Venus. But it may mean that I'm not finally sick of writing. I'm just sick of Venus and my psyche is being especially rebellious about it.

Something of a blow to my pride, though. I always finish my novels, no matter how sick of them I become.

So, I stuck a fork in myself and discovered that I was not yet done. Still more cooking to go. Maybe, having given the next flirtatious thing its way today, I can settle back down into my disciplined approach and finish the current thing. We'll see.

As

stillnotbored says, I just work here.

Entry tags:

From the notebooks: Mindfulness

I've been thinking a great deal about mindfulness in recent weeks—and constantly reminding myself to be mindful. And grateful, nonjudgmental, to do the right thing. So it was funny to run across this old write up last week that I did for some friends after attending a lecture by Thich Nhat Hahn.

October 8, 1997

Last night after jury duty I went to listen to Thich Nhat Hahn, Buddhist monk and all-around bon vivant, at the Santa Monica Civic. It was a mellow evening, to say the least. He spoke on the Buddhist concept of mindfulness.

( Read More )

Yes, it's difficult to be mindful, even at a lecture on mindfulness. But there's the other lesson: we strive for the best in ourselves, but we have to accept that we're human and flawed.

The other thing that I've been thinking a lot about lately is not giving too much energy to petty annoyances. Yes, it's difficult not to fall into a cult of irritation when you've had a string of things go wrong: broken garbage disposals, flat tires, wonky furnaces, and the like. But it seems to me, at least lately, that constantly reciting the list of what's going wrong gives these things more importance and energy than they rightfully deserve. They are what they are: what the living do. Every time I find myself listing petty annoyances, I remember that poem of the same name by Marie Howe and use it as my mantra to remind myself that I am still living, grateful to be alive, able to participate in the sacred day to day annoyances, mindful that my story is not over yet, that as long as I'm still alive I have the equally sacred opportunity of turning another page.

Entry tags:

The Fantasists Anti-Defamation League

I was listening to a literary lady talk this morning on NPR about Maureen McHugh's latest collection of stories. She said something to the effect of, "It's really too bad you find her writing in the science fiction and fantasy section of book stores. Her stories may start out in the fantastic but they're so well-written you don't even think about it after awhile."

ETA: Here's the exact quote, courtesy jaylake: "The thing about Maureen McHugh is you're going to find her shelved in the science fiction and fantasy section. And that's unfortunate."

I make no claim whatsoever to being a literary writer. I want to tell cranking good yarns that make people turn the pages--and yes, if there's some thought-provoking going on, if I attempt to write as well as I can and be as true to the realities of human nature within my fantastic boundaries, insert a little mythopoetic dynamic here and there, that's just swell. That's all about my pride in doing the best job I can, striving to always do better. In my quirky, fantastic kind of way. Too bad I will never be a serious writer if I keep writing the fantastic.

I'd suggest forming a Fantasists Anti-Defamation League, but I'm not serious enough to carry something like that off. Gosh, wouldn't that take rather a lot of commitment?

Quote of the day:

"Discipline and desire make a writer, a mantra I have to repeat to myself several times a week."

—Charlaine Harris
(a non-serious fantasy writer)

Writing thought of the day:

It occurs to me that if I could fix the problems with the novels I've started in my Ideas file, I could crank out a novel a year for many years without ever getting a new idea again. Phew, what a relief. I was seriously worried about my lack of ideas. In a non-serious way.