I am about to turn 41 and would tell my 30 year old self that you do not have to conform you[r] life to an ideal that you do not believe in. Live your life, don’t let it live you.
Don’t be afraid of tearing it all down if you have to, you have the power to build it all back up again.
— Lisa, 41
Excerpt from: 10 Lessons That Will Help You Excel In Your 30s … or 40s, or 50s, or 60s, or…..
This is in response to a blog prompt from The Daily Post to write about “Sacrifice.”
Prompted by the downward spiral of my country’s political process, I started binge-watching The West Wing again yesterday. I didn’t see it the first time around, when everyone was using Martin Sheen’s characterization of President Josiah Bartlet to escape the Bush presidency. It wasn’t until 2011 when, reeling from a few very personal losses, I took a leave of absence from my job and, instead of flying off to Chad as originally planned, moved into a studio apartment in the Lower East Side.
It was a sublet from a film accountant who had gone to Rhode Island to work on Moonrise Kingdom. Aside from being in enviably close proximity to Wes Anderson and his usual cast of characters, she had LOTS of DVDs–including the entire 7 seasons of The West Wing. As someone who doesn’t watch much TV, I only made it to season 3 before moving out and Continue reading
At one point – I don’t want to give away too much of the actual story – but at one point, she’s in an accident and breaks her foot, so she’s kind of immobilized. And so she’s thinking [reads aloud]:
Helpless, idle, it became clear to Bride why boredom was so fought against. Without distraction or physical activity, the mind shuffled pointless, scattered recollections around and around.
And that strikes me as, like, what you’re talking about when you’re not writing, when your mind is idle, that it just kind of goes through the shuffle of thoughts – in your case, negative thoughts [laughter] – that you dwell on in a way that you’d prefer not to.
— Terry Gross interviewing Toni Morrison and reading from her book God Help the Child
You can listen to the full interview here.
Missing in the Mission 