someone clever said...

"

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.

So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

"

"Your life is a made up story, Mommy. Your life is not real."

"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

"It’s not him. It’s me.” Just saying it like that, admitting I was the one who couldn’t make that leap - what did people call it? A leap of faith? - Just hearing it, made it sound as if I was some kind of neurotic who couldn’t make up her mind. Maybe this is why people signed prenups. I promise to love and honor you and not to get in your way or subvert who you are or expect you to fit into some idea I have about what married life should be like. I further promise not to change our deal down the road unless we both agree we want to change it and stipulate to those conditions. Yes. That would be my kind of prenup. Nothing about money or property or who gets to drive off in which car. For me it would be about stability. You will not change. We will not change."

"Was she up for this? She lay in bed under the covers, her breath visible in the slant moonlight. Really up for it? The long matrimonial haul was accomplished in cycles. One cycle of bad breath, one cycle of renewed desire, a third cycle of breakdown and small avoidances, still another of plays and dinners that spurred a conversation between them late at night that reminded her of their like minds and the pleasure they took in each other’s talk. And then back to hating him for not taking out the garbage on Wednesday. That was struggle. Sickness and death, caretaking, the martyrdom of matrimony - that was fluff stuff. When the vows kick in, you don’t even blink. You just do. She had to be up for it."

"FILE CABINET! For the love of argyle socks, use the freaking file cabinet!"

"We live everything as it comes, without warning, like an actor going on cold. And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is itself? That is why life is always like a sketch. No, “sketch” is not quite the word, because a sketch is an outline of something, the groundwork for a picture, whereas the sketch that is our life is a sketch for nothing, an outline with no picture. “Einnal ist keinmal,” says Tomas to himself. What happens but once, says the German adage, might as well not have happened at all. If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all."

"Fitter, happier, more productive, comfortable, not drinking too much // Regular exercise at the gym (three days a week) // Getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries // At ease, eating well (no more microwave dinners and saturated fats) // A patient, better driver, a safer car (baby smiling in back seat) // Sleeping well, no bad dreams, no paranoia // Careful to all animals (never washing spiders down the plughole) // Keep in contact with old friends, enjoy a drink now and then // Will frequently check credit at (moral) bank (hole in wall) // Favors for favors, fond but not in love // Charity, standing orders, on Sundays ring road supermarket // No killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants // Car wash (also on Sundays) // No longer afraid of the dark or mid-day shadows, nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate, nothing so childish // At a better pace, slower and more calculated (no chance of escape) // Now self-employed, concerned (but powerless) // An empowered and informed member of society (pragmatism not idealism) // Will not cry in public // Less chance of illness // Tires that grip in the wet (shot of baby strapped in back seat) // A good memory // Still cries at a good film, still kisses with saliva // No longer empty and frantic, like a cat, tied to a stick, that’s driven into frozen winter shit (the ability to laugh at weakness) // Calm, fitter, healthier and more productive // A pig, in a cage, on antibiotics"