"You have to know what you stand for, not just what you stand against"
- Laurie Halse Anderson
Signing up to have a quote delivered each day seemed to be the perfect solution. The first glitch was not turning off the chime notifying me of a new email. I am a very light sleeper and they seem to be sent out around 3:00 a.m. It took my little pea brain a few days before I thought to turn off all notifications. Problem number one...solved.
My latest dilemma is my quotes have backed up my email. I have hundreds of read emails, all being quotes. I am usually really good at clearing out my mailbox, but I haven't wanted to delete the quotes. I created a folder and moved all the quotes over, but they are now just as disorganized and lost as the ones scratched in some random margin. Actually, I sort of enjoy opening a book or calendar and finding a random passage to ponder for awhile.
I still have quotes delivered each morning. It gives me something to think about while showering and getting ready for my day. This week each quote has been from a book that was at one time banned or challenged. This is "Banned Books" week.
Each morning this week I've been reminded how easily we could lose freedoms we take for granted. I was awake at 3:00 this morning when the quote at the top of this post appeared; I have been thinking about it all day. I am afraid I am guilty of hiding behind being against something without focusing on what it is I am for. It takes less energy to be against, than for. To be for something calls for action. It calls for putting your beliefs on the line. I will be working on this one for awhile, but I do know I do not want someone else deciding what literature is available to me.
Did you know E.B. White's "Stuart Little" was once labeled unfit for children and banned from the shelves of the New York Public Library? "Interspecies miscegenation!" The Library Director ended the ban, after reading a copy, and the book did end up on the shelves. White's comment, "Stuart Little got into the shelves of the Library all right, but I think he had to gnaw his way in." ( I found this tidbit in a book I shared with you earlier, Writer's Gone Wild, Bill Peschel).
It is difficult to believe works of art, both written and visual , are still being censored today.
Food for thought and discussion.
(Ms. Anderson's YA book Speak,was challenged as pornographic in 2009)
Ah, Bonnie, how well you write. I'd be tempted to turn the quotes off, or at least have them delivered once a week. But as you say, they can trigger some deeper response. 'Charlotte's Web' is truly beautiful; how anyone can have thought of banning it is beyond me: they simply cannot have understood children, nor a child's natural frienship with the natural world around it.
ReplyDeleteHello Bonnie:
ReplyDeleteHow absolutely splendid to have a quotation arriving for each day, for we too love them, but, like Faisal, we do not really think that we could cope - too much to consider too often! But, as you say, those which appeal, and which one takes note of, are then 'lost' somehow in the mountain of things which are worth remembering.
Living as we do in a fragile democracy, which becomes more so daily, we are very aware of what it may be unwise to write down, or even on occasion, say.
I usually email responses to comments if possible, but I really feel strongly this is a discussion to be aired openly.
ReplyDeleteFaisal... You are too kind. I do not hold false notions of being a talented wordsmith; however, I am passionate. There are many times when my passion overtakes my muse and i find myself caught in a riptide of thoughts and emotion. Occasionally, I am fortunate and find the two settle down and meld into one.
We are all better for knowing Charlotte and Wilbur aren't we? Thank you!
Jane and Lance, I am addicted to quotes, knowing full well I often take them out of context. I long to put words together that will hold such meaning and give one pause to ponder.
It seems we all live in a fragile world today.
Bonnie
I love quotes and collect them also. I use those inspirations to drag me up when I am down, and to encourage and enlighten my spirit. I save them in draws, in books,on the refrigerator, or put them in frames and have them hanging in most rooms of my house. Right now I am looking at one from Eleanor Roosevelt (a favorite lady of mine), "Where flowers bloom, so does hope." Needless to say, I have quite a few gardens.
ReplyDeleteFood for thought today. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteYou write beautifully!
Stuart Little?!?! Oh my gosh that is crazy! I read Stuart Little again for the first time in my many years, when I read it to Sophia last year. I am the same way about quotes. One of my favorite things, is looking back to see how the quotes that spoke to me at a particular time in my life have changed. I have several journals that I have kept throughout the years that are just filled with quotes, poems, book passages, scriptures, etc. Looking back at the the ones from high school or college or when I first became a mother, it tells me as much about who I was back then as what the authors meant.
ReplyDeleteArleen... Eleanor Roosevelt was an amazing and inspirations woman giving us many quotes to think about. I love the one you shared here. I agree flowers do bring hope for tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteJill...Thank you so much! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.
Vera....Time does have a way of changing who we are. Enjoy your weekend.