I recently heard a quote that made me stop and think. Not only about the quote but about myself. As many of you know, I always try to post three quotes at the end of my daily blog. Most of the time, they are somehow relevant to the post. Sometimes I agree with the quotes, and sometimes I do not.
Quotes are funny things. They come right out of the mouths of people, just like you and me. So some of them may be completely wise, while others are total bunk. And to top it off, they are dependent on two things.
How they are being used — that is, the context.
And.
The person who is saying them.
For instance.
“Stand strong with those who are like yourself, and together, you can conquer the world.”
Now, I just made that up. And as it is, the thing sounds fairly positive and well-intentioned. But what if the quote appeared like this?
“Stand strong with those who are like yourself, and together, you can conquer the world.”
— Adolph Hitler
Well. Now we have a different context. We also have a different person giving the quote.
At any rate, the quote I heard the other day is this:
“He who angers you conquers you.”
— Elizabeth Kenny
Hmmm. Somehow, I can’t agree with this at all. First of all, anger is a very natural human emotion. We are supposed to experience anger. Yet. It is how we “express” that anger that is telling of us, individually.
Secondly, I have been angered many times in the past few months. Angered by the war in Ukraine and by Putin. Angered with the Supreme Court and their decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Angered at legislation designed to ban the word gay from schools and from our culture. Angered by the gerrymandering of voting districts. Angered by the “white male Christian culture” for dismissing all others but their white male selves.
I could continue with the list, but it is beginning to sound like I am a pretty angry person.
And yet, in each of these cases, I have to disagree with Ms. Kenny. I do not feel as if I have been conquered. Kicked in the knee? Yes. But certainly not conquered.
She said some other things, too. Like.
“It’s better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.”
— Elizabeth Kenny
I’m not sure how this adds up with her first quote. I mean, lions seem aggressive. Certain zebras and antelopes might even say they are angry. I would also argue that being sheep-like might be a good thing. Sheep are meek animals. They are usually very quiet and gentle. They seem to listen well and stick together. I think I might prefer to be a sheep.
So who was Elizabeth Kenny? She was born some time ago, in 1880. She was a self-trained Australian bush nurse. And she developed a method for treating something called poliomyelitis. That’s the fancy name for polio. Her techniques and practices were controversial at the time.
At the time, the conventional way of treatment was to place one of the affected limbs in a plaster cast. But she used hot compresses, followed by the gentle movement of the arms or legs to reduce what she called “spasms.” Over time, her principles of muscle rehab became the understructure of physical therapy.
She did good work in her life, a big bonus. But I wonder how her experiences set up the causes for her quotes.
We live, and we learn. That’s the thing. And our experiences, all of them, add up to the sum of who we are. It causes us to act the way we act and to say the things we do.
And so I say.
“I love a good cracker.”
— Polly “Not-The-Parrot” Kronenberger
I should add. I no longer get angry when people ask me if I want a cracker. Because most of the time, I truly would like to have one. And that is the way of the words.
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“Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another.”
― Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary
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“A quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business.”
― A.A. Milne, If I May
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“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The quotes, I say. The quotes.
