Source: Facebook
First off, this is NOT what I'd planned to write about today, but it does segue into what I was thinking re. INSTANT GRATIFICATION.
More & more, we "efficient components of the consumer economy" (to quote Chomsky:) want quick fixes for everything, including intellectual fixes as to why society feels like it's failing us.
Now, I'll be the first to admit: I can get my groove in high gear basking in the intellectual grapplings with quotes & ideas just as much as the next guy. However, let's be honest, there ain't no quote that can provide the answer to all of our existential woes. No matter how magnificent words may be, if they don't move us to change ourselves or our lives, they remain just that, words on a page.
(I can hardly believe I just wrote that:
I mean, I WRITE & EDIT FOR A LIVING, for cripes sakes:)
Sure, most writers are trying, in some way, to change the way a reader will think or perceive certain people, certain situations.
All I'm saying, is that one quote taken outside the context of a much larger world view is just that:
A SOUND BYTE!
It also explains this 'mad as a hatter' brouhaha insisting that authors come out swinging, throbbing or conjugating (and I don't mean verbs!) on the very first page, hopefully the very first line of their books.
As irony will have it:
I attended a gathering last week where most people agreed that their favourite books were ones that took them longer to get into...it surprised me because one of my favourite books, LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA, only had me completely enraptured by the 4th or 5th chapter)
To recap, this is what instant gratification looks like:
Image: runningwithpurpose32.blogspot.com
And so, today I'm advocating for DELAYED GRATIFICATION
Think about it!
Think about something in your life that made you feel enormous pride & happiness. Was it something achieved in an instant? (I'm thinking not...)
But, I digress.
About the quote:
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