Tag: Quote

Wilder

by Ebb Then Flood

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“Going to the woods is going home, for I suppose we come from the woods originally. But in some of nature’s forests, the adventurous traveler seems a feeble, unwelcome creature; wild beasts and the weather trying to kill him, the rank, tangled vegetation, armed with spears and stinging nettles, barring his way and making life a hard struggle.”

         – John Muir (Scottish-American naturalist and writer)

Nowadays , when we are encouraged to find our “wild side”, we don’t really mean anything that would instill fear in us, or cause us pain.

It’s more like an extravagant extra, something different that takes us out of our humdrum existence.

A bungy  jump; a raging party; acquiring some “edgy” art or clothes ; or a trip to somewhere off the usual “tourist trail”. Preferably something that can be posted on social media after the event…

But definitely not something we have to endure, or survive.

My own experience with hellish life events outside my control that took me to dark and wild places (nowhere I would choose), was exactly those two things. You too may have gone unwillingly into your own wild woods…

The words of Muir resonate with me as I think about those times: I knew with absolute certainty that everything could hurt me, anything could have my number.

The feeling of being utterly lost, blocked at every turn, and with each moment fraught with pain and danger, will stay with me always. It has changed my outlook on life, changed me.

The true wild transforms you.

If you survive it that is…

 

 

History Is Not Young

by Ebb Then Flood

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If “youth is wasted on the young”  – as Oscar Wilde’s witticism had it – sometimes I wonder whether history is too.

Not that young people cannot understand history ,when stories of the past are told well (as they must be), it is more that their present is constantly shifting,and becoming the future at light speed.

Leaving little time and energy to reflect on a past which appears increasingly irrelevant to them.

Case in point : The young man in the photograph sits at the foot of the Savage Memorial  in Auckland. It commemorates Michael Joseph Savage,New Zealand’s much respected  first Labour Prime Minister,and he is buried there.

One of Savage’s government’s great achievements was the establishment of comprehensive state social housing in the 1930s.

The young man and his peers face a crushing reality of totally unaffordable rents and house prices ,totally removed from the vision of affordable housing for all ,even the poorest, expoused by Savage.

That dream has faded in recent times, to the point that it appears to the young that is as dead as the late prime minister, and his memorial  is just something to lean your back upon….

 

 

As You Get To It

by Ebb Then Flood

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A beautiful scene on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island.

But fraught with obstacles – countless rocks, the incessant surf ,tidal rips and undulating topography.

Were you to venture to the headland in the distance, that would pretty much be your lot the entire way.

Challenging, yes?

Consider this,from American inventor Joy Mangano:

“Overcome obstacles  one at a time. Sometimes the end goal becomes too daunting, so take things one step at a time and overcome each one as you get to it.”

I recently watched the 2015 movie ‘Joy’,loosely based on her  life, as the protagonist battled continual setbacks and frustrations to market( of all freaking things) a revolutionary mop to the masses.

Certainly an eye opener on how to tackle obstacles. I winced every time things went pear-shaped, but she got what she wanted eventually.

Most worthwhile journeys we would probably never embark on if we could see at the outset all the barriers and pitfalls that we would encounter .

Joy’s simple mantra is the only realistic way to reach our dream destination.

So Many Books…

by Ebb Then Flood

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     “So many books, so little time.”

       – Frank Zappa

I  really find it hard to imagine Zappa actually sitting down with a book given his massive, sprawling musical career, but he must have – how else to explain the inspirations behind the often surreal songs? Or maybe he was lamenting the fact that his creative endeavours meant he couldn’t read everything he wanted to.

I know the feeling – my bedside table has a stack of half-read tomes and the shelves have many others I have been meaning to read or re-read. Frustrating!

Last night watched an episode of the new series “Catch-22” and realized that it was over thirty years ago that I read the amazing book by Joseph Heller (I bet Zappa read it too), and I had always meant to pick it up again. Time flying by…

Yet I know that the time and energy spent reading a book that miraculously seems meant for me, is a luxury that a time-poor person finds rewarded .Even if  it takes a while for me to get to the end, the journey of exploration through others’ words and worlds on the way there is nothing short of amazing.

I could extend that to blogs as well. So inspiring to see other writers and bloggers frame things I may not even have heard or thought of and give of themselves in the process.

Find time…

Your Nemesis

by Ebb Then Flood

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Do you have a nemesis?

The word nemesis has a couple of dictionary meanings: “the inescapable agent of someone’s or something’s downfall” or ” a longstanding rival;an arch enemy”.

I think we probably all have that inescapable person or thing that dogs us in life.

The thing that dogged Sir Winston Churchill he actually called his “black dog” – depression.

Churchill’s daughter Mary said of him: “He himself talks of his black dog, and he did have times of depression…..Of course, if you have a black dog it lurks somewhere in your nature and  you never quite banish it, but I never saw  him  disarmed by depression”.

Which sort of sums up a nemesis – always there or thereabouts, never gotten rid of and returning from time to time to haunt us  – but  I like the optimism in the final words of the quote, “never disarmed.”

Just because your nemesis remains ,it does not mean you have to lead a defeated life because of it.