Happiness is like a butterfly. The more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it comes softly and sits on your shoulder.
Henry David Thoreau
Don't be like the butterfly who flies around all the pretty flowers and then lands on a cow turd.
Advice on marriage, as told to my dad by Great Grandpa Smith, son of Harvey, of course.
Who sounds smarter to you - Thoreau or my great grandpappy? I know whose advice is worth heeding... And speaking of, I'm calling "bullshit" on that Thoreau quote.
Add to that who honestly wants little cow-poopie butterfly tracks on their shoulder, anyhoo?
16 comments:
Do you remember the fifties' song:
"I don't want a butterfly romance;
I don't want a butterfly love"...?
I did just that. I'm a twat.
Good call on the bullshit.
Your grandpa sounds like a man of vision. One of my ex-bosses had that screwed up quote on his wall and he is one of the most ill-tempered bastards on the face of the earth. Maybe that is why the butterflys just do fly by shit and runs over his shoulder.
chuck - I don't remember that song, but it certainly fits, dunnit?
tickersoid - well, I'll say this - you are in mighty good company. Oh, and you're not a twat just because you took a crack at something you believed in. Don't be so hard on yourself
dick - for sure!
fuzzbox - Yeah, he was a pretty smart old guy. Ironic, about your ex-boss. Maybe a previous occupant left that on the wall and he was too lazy or sorry to take it down.
I've always preferred Robert Frost's take on happiness over Thoreau's "Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length."
Although I must admit that your Great Grandpa Smith's quote is pretty damn good too.
Grandpa makes a lot of sense...
I wish that I had that advice before I got married!
perplexio - You're right - Frost's is vastly preferrable! Yeah, it's a stock family phrase now. That and "You can't polish a turd."
ranger tom - yeah, he was pretty awesome, Great Grandpa, and so was Granny. They were so cute. Yeah, well, no one ever SEEMS like a cowplop before you marry them, or maybe we're just too wise-assed to listen to good advice, so even hearing this advice probably wouldn't have saved you! But lucky you, you've ended up where you're supposed to be in spite of it all.
I just rremembered David Lee Roth's take on it. "Money may not buy happiness, but it can buy a helicopter and you can land pretty fuckin' close...-Al
You don't chase happiness. You have to sucker-punch it.
Thoreau wished he could be as cool as your great grandpappy!
Al - I like that alot - it reminds me of the one that goes "money doesn't buy happiness, but happiness doesn't buy money."
LBB - Yeah, sucker-punch it into oblivion before it seduces you into thinking it exists.
barbara - For real! I've tried reading Walden and other HDT stuff, and I have difficulty seeing it as anything other than effete pap.
I love when people say Grandpappy :)
heather b - yeah, it's an endearing thing, isn't it?
nongirlfriend - ah, we agree, utterly, and yeah, I expected as much! :o)
I guess I see both. Seems like we fail whenever we try to achieve any type of emotion -- it just happens.
becky - Good point - best thing is just not to try to force life - it's going to unfold however it will...
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