Quotations Weblog

On February 22, 1989, the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” won a Grammy award for Song of the Year. At that time, I not only was oblivious to the Grammy Awards (still am), but I was unaware of the idea of not worrying and being happy. It’s not that I hadn’t heard the song (Who could have avoided it?), but that I thought it was silly foppery. The attitude of that song, actually angered me and I turned away from it in disgust.

I had kept worry with me like a friend. I was under the impression that it protected me. The more I worried, the more ideas I would come across that would eventually help me with my problem. In that sense, worry is a friend, but I kept it too close to my bosom. At times, I would come across an amazing idea that would be sure to fix the problem, but the solution would take more than a few days. During those few days, I still worried. My mind would still nag me about the problem, even though I was well on the way to fixing it. It is then that worry was not my friend.

I was still “cleaving unto” worry when I was in college. Taking finals and nearing graduation, I was consumed by the almost irrational worry about what would happen if I didn’t graduate. I let this worry eat me from the inside until I was sick and lashing out at all of my loved ones. Even at graduation, the worry grabbed at my intestines.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I finally gained some grasp of the benefits and disadvantages of worry. I am finally able to worry about the things that need solutions, and use the energy of worry to work on the solutions once I get them. I’m finally able to turn this very negative emotion in a positive one: happiness.

Here are some quotes that helped me along the journey.

Introduction and quote compilation by Laura S. Moncur, Staff Writer.

“Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It’s already tomorrow in Australia.”

Charles Schultz

• Life 101 Hardcover by Peter McWilliams – A wonderfully positive book with lots of quotations. This book will not only tell you how to harness negative emotions like fear and worry, but tell you a myriad of other ways to be happy.
• Life 101 Quote Book Paperback by Peter McWilliams – If you are just interested in the quotes from Life 101 (and several other books by Mr. McWilliams), this is the book for you. None of the positive discourses here, just the quotes he uses to back them up.
• How to Stop Worrying and Start Living Paperback by Dale Carnegie – I haven’t read this book, but many of the quotes I’ve found are from Dale Carnegie. The Amazon.com site has tons of reviews of this book, and none seem displeased. Plus, with a title like that, the book must be good (how’s that for shallow?).
• Meditations for People Who (May) Worry Too Much Paperback by Anne Wilson Schaef (Editor), Cheryl Woodruff (Editor) – If meditation helps you, this book might just do the trick. Instead of imagining your most comfortable place, these meditations get to the root of why you’re not comfortable.

• The Motivational Quotes of the Day – This page is generated daily by choosing four quotes from my collection of over 1000 quotations (it’s almost 1500 quotes now). If you’re a regular visitor, you probably already know about this page, but I just can’t resist giving myself a plug.

I should be writing a section on the New Year in the Western world, but I just can’t get myself to do it. January first doesn’t mark the year’s beginning in all parts of this world and I can’t talk about new beginnings when I’m aware that it doesn’t mean that to everyone. Of course, I talk about Halloween and Christmas as if everyone knew what these holidays meant. I talk about the flu in the cold of winter when it’s summer in Argentina. How do I look past myself and my little world to see the big picture? How do I put aside my large biases on this small planet?

Maybe I shouldn’t. What does a writer do, but to describe the world around her as best as she can? If I worry about the New Year in Hong Kong when I’m trying to write about the New Year in the United States, am I able to fully tell the story of the resolutions and promises of a Utahan? If Jane Austen had taken a page or two to describe the life of the servants of Emma, would the story have been as vivid? I’m not proposing that egocentricism is correct. Other cultures are just as important as the one in which I am immersed, but I am fully unable to comment on them. I can only report life around me, and my yearly resolution is to do just that.

Introduction and quote compilation by Laura S. Moncur, Staff Writer.

“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”

Cyril Connolly

For more information about Self Improvement, try these links:

• Self Improvement Online – This site provides a weekly collection of inspirational quotes and a list of links to inspirational quote pages. There is also information on any sort of therapy available (bogus and not so bogus), from Aromatherapy to Yoga.

A frenzy starts every year at this time in the United States. I like to think that other countries don’t have this problem, but considering that Christmas has been around since the year 336, well before the United States was a glimmer in Spain’s eye, I’m sure other countries endure the madness also. I think there are two things that irritate me the most about this season: traffic and the holiday’s duration.

Trying to go anywhere is compounded with difficulty during the Holiday Season because so many people are out getting Christmas presents, but that irritation is minor compared to the sight of Christmas ornaments and paraphernalia at Halloween time. As I’ve said in the past, Halloween is my favorite holiday. To see it consumed by the Christmas season bothers me to no end. I think that’s why I love the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton. In that movie, Christmas gets eaten by Halloween, as it should.

The following are some humorous quotes about one of my least favorite holidays.

Introduction and quote compilation by Laura S. Moncur, Staff Writer.

“In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it ‘Christmas’ and went to church; the Jews called it ‘Hanukka’ and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say ‘Merry Christmas!’ or ‘Happy Hanukka!’ or (to the atheists) ‘Look out for the wall!’”

Dave Barry, Christmas Shopping: A Survivor’s Guide

For more information about Christmas, try these links:

• Christmas Unwrapped – The History Channel’s exhibit on Christmas.
• The following books and tapes are available through Amazon.com:
  • The Nightmare Before Christmas VHS Tape – This masterpiece of animation from the mind of Tim Burton tells the tale of Jack, the Pumpkin King and resident of Halloween Town. In an effort to show his fellow citizens the wonders of Christmas, he steals Christmas and kidnaps Santa. The perfect revenge for a holiday that has already consumed Thanksgiving and is well on the way to eating another, beloved holiday. Great price from Amazon.com for $13.49!
  • 4000 Years of Christmas : A Gift from the Ages Hardcover by Earl W. Count, Alice Lawson Count, Dan Wakefield (Introduction) – A historical look at this holiday and its pagan origins.
  • The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Hardcover by Barbara Robinson – This is considered a children’s book, and in fact, that’s when I read it, but it is such a wonderful story, that I feel compelled to recommend it. The Herdmans are a family of miscreants who had never heard about the Christmas story, yet take over the Christmas pageant. Despite the worries of the church-going folk, it turns out to be just as the title implies. Placing myself in the role of the Herdman family (we didn’t celebrate Christmas when I was a child), I cried when I read this book.
  • New Wave Christmas Audio Music CD by Various Artists – Great Christmas music for the few of us that enjoyed the music of the eighties. It includes: Mary Xmess by Sun 60, Shouldn’t Have Given Him a Gun for Christmas by Wall of Voodoo and, my favorite, One Christmas Catalogue [Too Many] by Captain Sensible. I went to every record store in the city searching for this thing last year, but you can get it from Amazon.com for $8.39.
• I Hate Bloody Christmas! – A well-written treatise on the decadence and uselessness of the holiday. It is difficult to read because of the oddly colored background, but aside from that, a perfect Bah Humbug proving that Great Britain has the same problems as the United States.
• Christmas in NYC – A bare-faced look at the commercialism and decadence of a holiday gone mad.

It is winter here in the Northern Hemisphere and with the colder temperatures, we humans tend to pass around germs. I, too, have succumbed to the virus. Suddenly, I am obsessed with my mucous levels and the decibels of my coughing. The house has given way to clutter and neglect and I have scavenged our bare cupboards for Ramen noodles and soup because we are too weak to shop for anything more than the immediate meal and more decongestant. Additionally, I have lost my voice, which is a curse to my ego. It has become obvious that I’m not getting noticed anymore. Little did I know that the measure of my power was based on the loudness of my voice.

Below are the few quotes I was willing to dig up about sickness in my weakened state. May you survive this winter without dealing with these woes.

Introduction and quote compilation by Laura S. Moncur, Staff Writer.

“There’s a flu bug getting passed around, and it’s spreading like fire through the town. There’s a virus holding up inside us. Everyone that I know is coming down.”

Squirrel Nut Zippers, ‘La Grippe’, The Inevitable, 1995

For more information about Wintertime Illnesses, try these links:

• Flu Season Advice from the IE Health Home Page – From Vitamin C to Chicken Soup, they give you advice on how to feel better.
• The following book is available through Amazon.com:
  • Take Care of Yourself : The Complete Guide to Medical Self-Care by Donald M. Vickery, James F. Fries – My personal favorite. I don’t get sick without this thing nearby. I use it to prevent my imagination from turning a little cough into lung cancer.
• Patient Information Sheet: Influenza (Flu) Clinical advice for the flu from Parker A. Small, Jr., M.D. and Bradley S. Bender, M.D., University of Florida. Sound advice from real doctors; listen up!

Fifty years ago, on November 24, 1947, The Un-American Activities Committee found the “Hollywood Ten” in contempt because they refused to reveal whether they were communists or not. This is a part of history that was hardly covered in my history classes in school. The entire “McCarthy Era” was glazed over and barely acknowledged. I wonder if it was because of shame or if it was still too controversial to cover when I was a child. The most coverage this era received was in my literature class when we read The Crucible by Arthur Miller. He was a victim of a blacklist that started with a senator named Joseph McCarthy.

Joseph McCarthy, along with Richard M. Nixon and Chairman J. Parnell Thomas, was involved with The Un-American Activities Committee. Over the span of a few years, this committee systematically brought people to them on the charges that they were “un-American.” There were a group of ten artists affiliated with Hollywood that were brought before this committee who refused to answer whether they were communists on the grounds that what senator McCarthy was doing was unconstitutional. Many famous actors and actresses, like Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, went to Washington to support these industry leaders, only to find themselves threatened with blacklists.

The following quotes are meant to be read in groups of two. The first is a quote that supports this sort of witch-hunting, and the second is another quote rebuking it.

Introduction and quote compilation by Laura S. Moncur, Staff Writer.

“I have here in my hand a list of two hundred and five [people] that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department.”

Joseph Raymond McCarthy, speech, Wheeling, West Virginia, Febuary 9, 1950

For more information about The Hollywood Ten and the McCarthy Era, try these links:

• Blacklist: Hollywood on Trial – A site containing biographies of blacklisted artists and a short synopsis of the effects of McCarthyism on Hollywood.
• The following books and tapes are available through Amazon.com:
  • Odd Man Out : A Memoir of the Hollywood Ten by Edward Dmytryk, one of the Hollywood Ten, Paperback
  • Radical Innocence : A Critical Study of the Hollywood Ten by Bernard F. Dick, Paperback. A look at the work of the Hollywood Ten (short stories, novels, plays, criticisms, poems, memoirs, and films).
  • The Crucible : A Play in Four Acts by Arthur Miller, a victim of the blacklist, Paperback. This play was written in response to the “witch-hunting” activities of Senator Joseph McCarthy in the early 1950s. Set in 17th century Salem, Massachusetts.
  • The Crucible Audio Cassette of the play by Arthur Miller.
• McCarthyism – The Yahoo list of links for information related to McCarthyism.
• Blacklisted Hollywood – A transcript of the October 24, 1997 Newshour, which includes links to other sites. There is an interview with Paul Jarrico and Marsha Hunt, two victims of this era.