Almost every paragraph of this post prompted me to want to reply. Since I haven't the time to type out all my thoughts (and I'm sure you haven't the inclination to read them), I will limit myself to the two which jumped out at me:
1) When you wrote "people who truly impact the world are ...motivated by...a quiet resolve to address the things they cannot ignore", I immediately thought of Malala Yousafzai, one of my personal heroes. I don't know that I would have ever known anything about her if she had not been a 15 year old girl who stood up for her right to go to school and was subsequently shot. She addressed the lack of access to education for herself by insisting on attending school, and then she addressed those violently trying to stop other girls by taking her fight to a larger audience. Her quiet resolve has made a huge impact.
2) No matter how much care and effort any one of us put into this world, even those of us like Malala who manage to effect real and significant change, each of us, as individuals, are so insignificant in the grand scheme of things that we are unlikely to be remembered past a few generations-unless, of course, we do something as tone deaf as Nero and become a cautionary tale ;)
"But what if living a 'good enough' life isn’t about settling, but rather a quiet act of rebellion against the constant push to be more?" Exactly !
In her book Things Are Going Great In My Absence, Lola Jones invites us to not go down in the well with the other people that are struggling down in the well.
Her take on life is that if we stay in a place of goodness, balance, and contentment, even if we aren't rip roaring high flyers and just common, everyday, ordinary people, which is what most of us are, that our essence can impact the world around us.
(BTW Maureen.... you make writing look easy. And that run-on sentence with 25 commas above is a mess and shows why you are currently publishing and I am not 😹)
Love what you're writing about, Maureen Elyse. This line landed for this reader:
"And if we’re honest, just “living” doesn’t always feel sufficient. It feels like auditioning as an extra on a movie set instead of going for the lead role."
Oliver Burkeman, in his book Four Thousand Weeks; A Mortal's Guide to Time Management, argues for the same concept, but for a different reason. Even if one could be remembered as well as someone like Michael Jackson (my example, not his), in time even Michael will be forgotten. There is no special that outlives the sands of time. I would add, why would that matter to me when I'm dead anyway?
Almost every paragraph of this post prompted me to want to reply. Since I haven't the time to type out all my thoughts (and I'm sure you haven't the inclination to read them), I will limit myself to the two which jumped out at me:
1) When you wrote "people who truly impact the world are ...motivated by...a quiet resolve to address the things they cannot ignore", I immediately thought of Malala Yousafzai, one of my personal heroes. I don't know that I would have ever known anything about her if she had not been a 15 year old girl who stood up for her right to go to school and was subsequently shot. She addressed the lack of access to education for herself by insisting on attending school, and then she addressed those violently trying to stop other girls by taking her fight to a larger audience. Her quiet resolve has made a huge impact.
2) No matter how much care and effort any one of us put into this world, even those of us like Malala who manage to effect real and significant change, each of us, as individuals, are so insignificant in the grand scheme of things that we are unlikely to be remembered past a few generations-unless, of course, we do something as tone deaf as Nero and become a cautionary tale ;)
Thoughtful post!
Your graffiti wall picture ending is grand!
"But what if living a 'good enough' life isn’t about settling, but rather a quiet act of rebellion against the constant push to be more?" Exactly !
In her book Things Are Going Great In My Absence, Lola Jones invites us to not go down in the well with the other people that are struggling down in the well.
Her take on life is that if we stay in a place of goodness, balance, and contentment, even if we aren't rip roaring high flyers and just common, everyday, ordinary people, which is what most of us are, that our essence can impact the world around us.
(BTW Maureen.... you make writing look easy. And that run-on sentence with 25 commas above is a mess and shows why you are currently publishing and I am not 😹)
Kind of you to say (re making the writing look easy) lucky for you the blood sweat and tears are behind closed doors 😂
😹💞
Love what you're writing about, Maureen Elyse. This line landed for this reader:
"And if we’re honest, just “living” doesn’t always feel sufficient. It feels like auditioning as an extra on a movie set instead of going for the lead role."
Oliver Burkeman, in his book Four Thousand Weeks; A Mortal's Guide to Time Management, argues for the same concept, but for a different reason. Even if one could be remembered as well as someone like Michael Jackson (my example, not his), in time even Michael will be forgotten. There is no special that outlives the sands of time. I would add, why would that matter to me when I'm dead anyway?
Yes good point - if you’re dead what good is being remembered right?!? and yet I do struggle with wondering if ordinary is enough 🤷🏻♀️
Worth reading!
Thank you