On Being Earnest

[deliasherman]

"True wit," wrote Alexander Pope in his Essay on Criticism, "is nature to advantage dress'd: / What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd."  This typographical poem/video certainly fills the bill.  I got it from Terri Windling.  And I believe Every Single Word.  Passionately.

I like to think I am a moderate person.  I don't enjoy flaps,

Comments

[shweta_narayan]

I think yes. Also <3
Personally, though, I never seem to keep the decibel level down :)

[asakiyume]

I have nothing personally invested in my own opinionsl--great line from that poem.

I think your last paragraph goals seem good. For myself, I want to remind myself to listen to people with hearing ears (rather than with the constant, and sometimes [often?] inaccurate chatter of my interpreting mind), and to think about what I'm hearing. I want to remain limber and flexible in my thinking. And, I want to be brave enough to speak up for things when I feel strongly about them (but I have a hard time with that. I don't do it often...)

[deliasherman]

Yeah. Me, neither. It's sometimes hard to find a way of stating a case so it can be heard. Well, if we didn't have something to aspire to and work on, where would we be? (this seems to be Rhetorical Question Day. Ah, well.)

[asakiyume]

I giggled at Rhetorical Question Day. I bet there really is such a day.

Checking on this site (which doesn't strike me as that much of an authority, but whatever...), I find that today is, among other things, courageous follower day and Benjamin Harrison day. Also, as another friend of mine online pointed out, today is the only day that is also an imperative statement.

March Fo(u)rth!

[deliasherman]

The only other monthly verb is "May second," which only works in the context of a committee meeting with a very polite president. Plus, it needs a subject.

You wouldn't believe how long it took that penny to drop. Whaddya want? It was before lunch, and I was hungry.

[ellen_kushner]

I'm so glad you love passion (emotional & intellectual). Because if you didn't, being married to me would be unbelievably irritating.

[queenbookwench]

You two are ridiculously adorable--quit it!

[peregrinejohn]

I like my irony lightly steamed - just wilted - with some crushed garlic and a grind or so of pepper.

Some may see the combination of a passionate nature with desire for care and moderation to be a contradiction in terms. As another of the same sort as you, I have no such qualm. Right there with you. Could bore you to tears with conjecture based on that, and your final paragraph, but will instead restrain myself.

Alexander Pope was a marvelous individual.

[deliasherman]

I like my irony in a soufflee.

Yeah, I love Pope. And contradictions. And I don't bore easily.

[csecooney]

That Yeats line has haunted me from the first time I read it. My passionate intensity always came with a loud voice, and occasionally knocking things over on accident.

What I admire in others is the ability to articulate -- sometimes with wicked razorblades of wit -- why they DON'T like something. I'm all about celebrating the great things, but feel irritable and clammed up when I loathe a thing, and wish to spend not a jot longer of my time on it. Which isn't useful, I think. But I'm still of several minds about it all. Which is my other problem. Fence-sitting. Loudly.

:)

Fun post, Delia!

[deliasherman]

I think all the minds are telling you something useful, and should be allowed to have their say. If something's complex, you're going to have a complex response to it, right? Then why not celebrate the complexity, the weaknesses and the strengths? What's wrong with a mixed review?

[csecooney]

I don't mind a mixed review -- I appreciate the pensive, balanced feel of the really good ones. (Although I'm not as good at those as I'd like to be!)

It's pure dislike of a thing I seem to be too squeamish to write about! Maybe I just don't want to find out how mean I can get, trailing viscera, necklace of skulls, that sort of thing...

[deliasherman]

Yeah, me too. Except for when I saw Avatar. I didn't seem to have any difficulty going on and on (and on) about how much I hated that.