In this time of “trumpery” (an actual word, found by a friend in Merriam-Webster, meaning “worthless nonsense, trivial or worthless articles, junk, tawdry finery”) and candidates who are trumped-up (meaning “fraudulently conceitful, spurious”), we need an antidote. We need wisdom.
Recently, a friend relayed a call for an “inspiration exchange,” structured as a chain email. The gist of it read as follows:
“Please send an encouraging quote or verse to the person whose name is in position #1 below (even if you don’t know them). It should be a favorite text verse/motivational poem/prayer/meditation that has lifted you when you were experiencing challenging times. Don’t agonize over it — it is one you reach for when you need it or the one that you always turn to.”
Since a lot of people don’t trust chain emails (assuming it’s just another way to collect addresses for email trumpery — or worse) my small circle of philosophical contacts decided to create our own inspiration exchange. Here’s what we’ve collected (with a few bonus quotes thrown in afterward, just for fun):
“The jump is so frightening between where I am and where I want to be, [but] because of all I may become, I will close my eyes and leap.”
Mary Anne Radmacher
“A setback is just a set-up for a comeback.”
Relayed from “a dear friend who is completing a brutal, year-long regimen of chemotherapy and surgery for breast cancer, now officially in remission”
“In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love.
In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile.
In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm.
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.”
Albert Camus, from Retour à Tipasa, 1952
“In the world to come, each of us will have to give an account of all the good things in creation that we did not enjoy.”
The Talmud
“No plan survives contact with the enemy.”
Field Marshal Helmut von Moltke the Elder
“All shall be well. Everything shall be well. All manner of things shall be well.”
Juliana of Norwich, 14th century woman mystic “who spoke these words after having a transcendent experience and seeing the whole world, with all of its interactions and difficulties, as having purpose”
“Joy is, above all, the fruit of having come face to face with a universal and enduring reality to which one can refer and, as it were, attach those fragmentary moments of happiness that, being successive and fugitive, excite the heart without satisfying it.”
Teilhard de Chardin, from Hymn of the Universe
“A person should hear a little music, read a little poetry and see a fine picture every day in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Remember these five rules to be happy: Free your heart from hatred. Free your mind from worries. Live simply. Give more. Expect less.”
Found online
“To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair inevitable.”
Raymond Williams
“It’s the going, not the getting there, that’s good” and “In the long run, the long run is all that matters.”
Two CTA ads, separated by 30 years
“The best writing occurs at the intersection of the heart and the mind.”
My coinage, though I’ll bet I’m not the first to come up with something along this line
In honor of Downton Abbey, whose last episode airs this Sunday, here’s a collection of lessons in living from Countess Violet, played by Maggie Smith). One wonders what The Dowager would say about The Donald:
“Vulgarity is no substitute for wit.”
“I don’t dislike him. I just don’t like him, which is quite different.”
“Principles are like prayers — noble, of course, but awkward at a party.”
“If she won’t say yes when he might be poor, he won’t want her when he will be rich.”
“There’s nothing simpler than avoiding people you don’t like. Avoiding one’s friends, that’s the real test.”
“Don’t be defeatist, dear. It’s very middle class.”
“No life appears rewarding if you think about it too much.”
“If I had to choose between principle and logic, I’d take principle every time.”
“When we unleash the dogs of war, we must go where they take us.”
“Rich lives, brilliant careers, are seldom lived without an element of love.”
And one final slice of wisdom, from Susan Sarandon’s character, Beverly Clark, in the 2004 film Shall We Dance? in which she answers the question, “Why do people get married?”
“Because we need a witness to our lives. There’s a billion people on the planet. What does one life really mean? But in a marriage, you’re promising to care about everything — the good things, the bad things, the mundane things, all of it, all the time. Every day you’re saying, ‘Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go unnoticed because I will be your witness.'”
Here’s to finding the inspiration to witness one another’s lives.
And to choosing wisdom over Trumpery.
