Sunday, July 5, 2009

Finding me in others' words

Ever since my childhood, I had great interest in collecting quotes, randomly without any order, not on any one subject. In the early days it was more kind of knowledge gathering or good-words-to-be-followed. Years later, I'm equally enthralled every single time I happen to know a quote. What is enthralling is having a fair bit of understanding of self, I kind of find myself in these quotes. Otherwise, what I'm currently doing has been approved by these stalwarts. The two writers I was googling tonight: Kierkegaard and Steinbeck, who were strangers half an hour ago.

Once you label me you negate me. - Soren Kierkegaard

I've been struggling to fill in the "about me" texts here and there. This comes as a perfect rescue for me. Only problem is that it's too straight and too simple, whereas the following is more apt to my style.

People understand me so poorly that they don't even understand my complaint about them not understanding me. - Soren Kierkegaard

Rib-tickling! So far, I was inclined on making people understand that it's not easy to understand me. Now, I've got a new way, a funnier way - complaining can get funny too.

And here's another case. You open up to people, speak your mind intelligible manner and yet, people come up with opaque and weird theories, trying to give solution even while there is no problem first place.

I feel as if I were a piece in a game of chess, when my opponent says of it: That piece cannot be moved. - Soren Kierkegaard

Not the fault of the pawn there. Not that it's dull and ineffectual. It has to abide by the rule. What if rules are self-imposed? Aren't rules, rules for a boss? :P

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. - John Steinbeck

How true! Trip.. go round and round and round and round! Enjoyyyy! It's fun, I bet! When it ends, it doesn't even matter.

It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it. John Steinbeck

Was someone spying my ways of life? A good night's sleep can put any trouble away. Or rather, it works other way round as well for me. Whenever it becomes very difficult to make a choice, when the consequences of doing and not doing are almost balanced that I can't lean towards one, that is when sleep comes to my rescue. Consciously I might be struggling, but sub-consciously I know what I really want to do.

I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations - one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it - you will regret both. - Soren Kierkegaard

I'm loving it! You regret it either ways, better regret what you've done. Not doing and then regretting is like worse than the worst.

4 comments:

Vamsi Krishna said...

"You regret it either ways, better regret what you've done. Not doing and then regretting is like worse than the worst."

Huh? its my quote:p

Purnima said...

Are you sure? :P

D.S.Murty said...

Beutiful quotes.
Thank you for introducing these 'strangers'... so that we will not miss them any further..and continue to savour the beutiful reality reflecting in their quotes.
Sleep...it helped me too many times, by rescuing me from taking difficult decisions with indecisive mind, postponing till the mind gets sufficient energy recharge from sleep to narrow down the choices to ONE.
Regrets from doing or not doing can be avoided ...!
ONLY if we know what, when, where, why and how to do and not to do..!
Next to impossible.
(Just recollecting babumohan's dialogue from 'Mayalodu'.. soundarya tells him to analyse, enduku-emiti-ela? :-)).
Read Somewhere :
"God,
Give me the courage to change the things I can;
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change;
And the wisdom to differentiate the two."

Most problems or stress arise because, we never try to differentiate the two.

D.S.Murty said...

Just for fun.
when i was reading my comment again, i realized that i didn't put punctuation mark in the sentence:
"Sleep...it helped me too many times"
Two different meanings may come :
"Sleep...it helped me too, many times"
or
"Sleep...it helped me, too many times"

:-) :-) :-)