Quotations Weblog

Before I was born, a young woman stood up for herself and the rest of the oppressed by refusing to give up her seat on a bus. I remember seeing a dramatization of her defiant act on television. I remember thinking how tired she must have been to defy all the customs of the South. I remember thinking how absurd the customs had been.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a “First Come, First Served” world. It doesn’t matter whether the color of your skin or whom you love or what language you speak. If you are on the bus and get a seat first in Salt Lake City, no one is going to ask you to give up your seat. Instead of bigotry, I’ve grown up with kindness. I’ve seen people give up their seats to the elderly, to pregnant women and to people who just look tired.

Thank you, Rosa, for your part in making my world a better place to grow up.

Rosa Park’s funeral was today. She was eulogized by the most powerful in the nation. Here’s what they said about her:

Rosa Parks Quotations – The Quotations Page

Instead of dressing up for a party or to scare the kiddies, she dressed up to rob a bank.

• CNN.com – Witch suspect in Halloween holdups takes flight – Nov 1, 2005

Ironically, if she had worked a little harder on the costume and hit all the bars on Halloween night, she would have won more in prize money than she got from the bank heists.

At certain times in his life, Cato the Elder WAS able to control the evil tongues of others. He was also called Cato the Censor because an attack from him meant expulsion from Rome or self-banishment. He believed in a simple life and was critical of senators and knights who lived opulent and luxurious lives.

The Internet allows people to anonymously say things that they would never say in person. There are so many times when I get a nasty comment or email that really cuts me. I can delete the comment. I can delete the email, but it doesn’t stop my mind from repeating the words over and over. The worst are the articulate criticisms. Sometimes they are helpful to me and I am able to make things better. Other times, I know I am doing what is right, but the well-written words still haunt me.

I have yet to master today’s advice from Cato the Elder. I’m sure there were many times that tongues wagged behind his back, injuring him, but somehow, he was able to focus so much on living a wholesome and moral life that he was able to disregard them. I’m still working on this technique. Until then, I’ll lick my wounds and delete those emails.

I was raised by a certain group of devout Christians who believe Halloween is a Pagan holiday. It does have its basis in Pagan traditions, but to any child of this century, Halloween is all about costumes and candy. For some, it’s just about the candy and the costume is the means. I wasn’t allowed to go trick-or-treating until after the divorce in sixth grade. That means I went a total of two times, once in the sixth grade and once in seventh grade.

I kept that Halloween candy until well into December. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks before Christmas that I finished off the Smarties at the bottom of the orange plastic pumpkin. I still feel a happy glow at the thought of so much candy that I can survive until Christmas. My mother never denied me candy, but I had already gained the hoarding and bingeing habits from the summers with my grandma. I remember feeling so glad that I had enough; enough to last more than a month.

As an adult, I can eat candy whenever I want. Halloween candy has no allure for me beyond the small serving sizes. For once in my life, I finally feel like I have enough all the time. I have enough candy to last me for the rest of my life.

Edgar Allan Poe specialized in touching on themes entirely too horrible. As a young adult, we were forced to read The Tell-Tale Heart several times. The school system seemed to overlook the fact that he had written many other stories. Sadly, senior year, the curriculum called for The Masque of the Red Death, which is entirely too allegorical for teenagers.

They should have made us read The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. It was a brilliant story about forestalling death using hypnosis. It shows the early American viewpoints on science and hypnosis, where they were intermingled as if both were equally valid. It’s also creepy as they come. If only they had assigned that story.

I would have also liked to read the The Cask of Amontillado before I became an adult. The petty rage and the sheer horror of the end of it is far more terrifying than The Pit and the Pendulum. Unidentified torturers are far less scary than a friend gone made with angry revenge.

I thought that I was a Poe Specialist until I played the game, The Dark Eye. It is a computer game that is based on the stories of Edgar Allan Poe starring the voice of William S. Burroughs. It is a beautiful reinactment of some of Poe’s scariest stories. You play through each story through the eyes of the villian and the victim. It’s a wonderful game to play when you’re alone home at night during a rain storm.

• Edgar Allan Poe Quotes – The Quotations Page