QOTD - this makes everything groovy

"I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself." DH Lawrence, English author

And so, if you're being devoured by a lion, just keep calm and let the lion carry on??


Quotes-of-the day from the 2014 Keep Calm & Carry On desk calendar

QOTD - it has to be juuuuuust right

"As much is lost by a card too many as by a card too few." Miguel de Cervantes, 16th century Spanish writer

A card. An hour. A mile.

Yes, this is so. And, once again, has squat-all to do with either Keeping Calm or Carrying On! Can anyone explain this calendar to me??

Quotes-of-the day from the 2014 Keep Calm & Carry On desk calendar

QOTD - Managing Expectations

"I don't expect to be happy, but it's gotten beyond that, somehow." Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American aviator

"it's gotten beyond that, somehow." Somehow how? 

As in: a terrible thing happened to her (which we know did). After which, merely not being happy would be an improvement? 

As in: she'd thought she knew what happiness was. And didn't necessarily expect it. But now she knows of something so beyond happiness (something spiritual, perhaps?) that wanting to be happy seems minor? 

As in: with so much warring against happiness, she never expected it. But, in the end, she became happy beyond her wildest imaginings?

Maybe if I knew "somehow,"  I could decide how to feel about this quote.

Quotes-of-the day from the 2014 Keep Calm & Carry On desk calendar

QOTD - blame the victim

"Nothing is easy to the unwilling." Thomas Fuller, 17th century British historian

Oh, dear! How very "shame on you!" this sounds. Like an admonishment given by a teacher to a student who, the teacher is convinced, is only failing because of laziness.

This is not to say that the statement itself doesn't hold a grain of truth. However, it does not follow that everything comes easily to the willing. For example, how many people in the USA are currently unemployed, not because of willingness to work but because of a shortage of jobs? 

Rather than encouragement, this quote resounds with judgement. I find its presence on an "uplifting" calendar quite objectionable.

Quotes-of-the day from the 2014 Keep Calm & Carry On desk calendar

QOTD - Call the Darkness Light

"The dark is light enough." Christopher Fry, English playwright

I was glad to see something by Christopher Fry. His isn't a name you hear very much these days. 

I used to use a speech from The Lady's Not for Burning, for which I have a special fondness, as an audition speech. 

Today's quote is the title of a different play. My mind's ear hears it spoken brusquely, with a grim satisfaction that proves the speaker to have a Stiff Upper Lip. For some reason, it reminds me of Stevie Smith's casual allusion to the alternative to carrying on: "Things may easily become more than I choose to bear."


Quotes-of-the day from the 2014 Keep Calm & Carry On desk calendar