committed

 I've heard it said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I have to agree with that. By imitation the hope is to duplicate whatever success or popularity the one quoted enjoys. Somehow, we all feel just a bit smarter by quoting others. I suppose it is supposed to show others that we are well read as the saying goes. Or at the very least we have a good memory. It's an amazing thing really. Out of the thousands, or millions of words written or spoken in a person's lifetime, a very small number will be remembered and quoted. It is those words that we remember that person by. It is also what we think the person must have been. By repeating those words, we are imitating that person.

 It is interesting if you read a number of quotes, easily done today on the internet, I often go to Brainy Quotes. A great many of those people I know absolutely nothing about. I will then Google that person. I try to get a sense of their feelings and leanings. I have discovered that remarkable things are often spoken by unremarkable people. I have discovered quotes that I agree with to only discover the person responsible for that quote was basically a terrible person. "Let me control the textbooks, and I will control the state." (Adolf Hitler) As vile a person as he was, he did express a basic truth worth remembering. "Indifference is dangerous, whether innocent or not." (Pope Francis) A call to action? 

 In all my writing I occasionally pen something I particularly like. I write them in another journal I keep on my desk. The same journal that has my poems in it. Just bullet statements really, that's what they would call them in business. I write them down separate like that in the hope they will get read. I don't expect anyone to read all these blogs of mine and extract the thoughts I like the best, people will read and take what they like. Often the context of that thought is left behind. That's the insight to the person that I'm thinking about. It is my hope that that some of my "quotes" become an adage. I call them quotes because that's what they are at the moment. It takes others to make them an adage. They have to be repeated! 

 An adage, by definition, expresses a general truth. They express the moment the proverbial light bulb turns on. It happens to us all. It also happens at different times and for different reasons. Some of us learn in silence and for others it takes drama and turmoil. We can do it the hard way or the easy way. It's not always our choice. But, we learn and the bulb lights up on a general truth. The truth isn't always what we want to hear or admit too. Still, truth remains. "Emotions are great motivators, seldom are they good guides." (A. B. Reichart, Jr) That's a general truth I discovered for myself. It isn't so much the discovery though, it is the acceptance of the truth. Truth is what you perceive it to be. That is expressed in the Theory of Relativism. Yes I agree, it is all relative. 

 We all choose to be an imitation. The decision lies in what to emulate. Will it be our parents, siblings, cousins, sports figures, celebrities or singers? On some level we do choose. It could be that I just haven't committed yet. Is that what successful people do? Make that decision early on in life? Those are the folks we often admire the most. The go-getters, those that are committed to their craft. They are successful. We are told to do that from the very beginning. Chase your dream! True happiness can only be found when you realize your dreams. Perhaps the secret simply lies in recognizing the dream. 

 I do not consider myself a philosopher, scholar, or having any special talents or insights into mankind. I'm just here doing what I can. I'd say doing the best I can, but in truth that takes more effort than I'm willing to expend at the moment. I'm doing what I have to do most of the time. It'll stay that way until I commit myself to something further. Over the last decade or so I have taken a more active interest in history. That could be simply because I have more of it. I have also found myself a bit more philosophical than when I was younger. I stumbled upon this quote, "History is philosophy teaching by example." (Thucydides) Looked him up, he was a general in the Roman Army, wrote a few books and is studied by military scholars to this very day. I can quote him. It's a form of imitation. But I'm not committed, although I've been told I should be.