Quotation Tuesday 8!
Another Quotation Tuesday!
Last night, at about 4 a.m., there was a magnitude 4.4 earthquake here in Los Angeles. If you've never been in an earthquake before, a 4.4 is fairly small. It feels about the same as someone gently shaking your bed to wake you up.
The things that made it scary were A. it wasn't someone I loved gently shaking me, it was the earth's crust slipping against itself, and the earth's crust could care less about me in my bed, B. earthquakes can be much bigger than 4.4 and Los Angeles is supposedly historically overdue for "the big one," and C. we've so recently seen the horror that a big one can inflict... in Haiti and Chile.
So whether you were woken up from sleeping or you were working the night shift somewhere in L.A. (or you were out and about for some other reason at 4 a.m. on a Tuesday - not sure what that would be), when you recognized that beginning rumble and heard the creaks and cracks of the building around you adjusting to the moving earth below it, you caught your breath. You tried to be ready for anything. And you were honest with yourself.
This week's Tuesday quote is by Robert C. Edwards.
"You are only what you are when no one is looking."
In a culture with less and less privacy, it unfortunately can take a moment like the first jolt of an earthquake to snap us out of the image-driven mentality. Who are you when no one's looking? What do you really want, what do you need to say, and what's missing? If you can somehow muster this kind of humble honesty with yourself without the fear that your house is about to collapse on you, you'll be a happier person.
Now go stock up on some disaster supplies.
- Brigitte
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Comments
romeo Tuesday, March 16, 2010
“We learn geology the morning after the earthquake” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Love is like an earthquake-unpredictable, a little scary, but when the hard part is over you realize how lucky you truly are.” -anon
"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two."
-St. Augustine
Shauna Dacus Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Brigitte-
I remember one of your old video blogs! With the green hat and vest that you thought you should be able to wear all the time?
Hope nothing broke or anything! Was Maddie scared?
-Shauna
Blargal D. Alien Tuesday, March 16, 2010
@ romeo:
I feel lthe earth move under my feet..." Carole king.
Hello,Brigitte.
But did you get a rush of hypersensitivity when you realized WHAT it was, vis a vis Haiti and Chile?
Rob Tuesday, March 16, 2010
I live in California also, and I have to admit.. the earthquake thing is pretty scary.
Joe436 Wednesday, March 17, 2010
What was the first object you checked to see if it was broken?
Vikash Thursday, March 18, 2010
I have a habit of enlisting the best quotes i come across on the sticker of my iGoogle homepage such that i get a glimpse of them daily and keep them in practice as well!! you would be glad to know that 6 out of your 8 quotes so far have made their way to my list.
This was by far the best one , because i have had so many friends who were indeed quite different than what they appeared to be in evryone's company.
Thanks for sharing these and making our Tuesdays "specialer"!!
One quote from my list: ~Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.~
Mike Sunday, March 21, 2010
Brigitte: Earthquakes or blizzards?