A Dancing Star
I love quotes. I've been collecting them since I was thirteen. A few years ago, I switched from the calendar on my phone back to a paper planner. Shortly after that, I started writing one quote on each page for each day. So, I'm always looking for new quotes. (Send me some quotes, people! LOL!)
A bought a book at the thrift store called "A Dancing Star". The title comes from a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche which says, "I say to you: "One must have chaos in oneself in order to give birth to a dancing star." I have friends who insist I am the generator and attractor of all chaos, so I liked the quote. Several of the other quotes were good too and I copied them down.
The thing that fascinates me about this book though, has nothing to do with the book itself. Tucked into the back pages is a list. It was originally written on yellow school paper or a yellow legal pad but it's been folded for so long (and maybe unfolded and refolded) that it's now six separate small pieces. The list is dated 27 December 1978. It is 40 years old. It begins with a "statement of lifetime goals". Then it has a "statement of five year goals". It ends with "Six months to live goals" I hope this last was a hypothetical, "man I need to get motivated" kind of category and not and actual fact.
I am a life long list maker myself. Additionally, as an amateur sociologist, I'm fascinated by other people's random, seemingly meaningless, everyday debris. To do lists. Grocery lists. I think you can learn things about people by looking at these things.
I think the writer is a woman although the note offers no definitive proof of this. Since I don't know, I'm going to go ahead and refer to the writer as her. She wanted to travel. She wanted to find real love. She wanted to be healthier. The thing which calls to me most of all though, is that she wanted to write. And she wanted to be able to support herself and her future family by writing. And though I don't know her at all, I feel like she could be a kindred spirit.
We all dream dreams. Sometimes by the time we reach middle age (or even sooner) we give up on those dreams. We might realize they aren't practical or they are actually someone else's dream for us. Sometimes we lose our youth or idealism or time just gets away from us. This loss of dreams can be tragic or be met simply with a shrug and a "well, you know..."
But I'm intrigued by how we get there. How do we get from point A to point B? We are ever in a process of becoming the people we are. Every experience shapes us. Even apparently trivial choices can become a very big deal in hindsight.
I would love to know if this person met her goals. Did she travel? Did she find love? Did she follow her dream of writing as a career? The book of quotes was published in 1991, so clearly the list was initially written before the book was acquired. On the back cover, someone (I assume the lists' author) has pasted half of a snapshot of the ocean. Another clue. Another connection. I too love the ocean.
The internet has made our world smaller. Perhaps someone will read this blog who will recognize the list writer. Perhaps the list writer herself (or himself) will even read this post. I'm obsessed. Every part of me is rooting for this person to have reached their goals. Somehow, it gives me hope. If it's you, let me know how it turned out for you.
A bought a book at the thrift store called "A Dancing Star". The title comes from a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche which says, "I say to you: "One must have chaos in oneself in order to give birth to a dancing star." I have friends who insist I am the generator and attractor of all chaos, so I liked the quote. Several of the other quotes were good too and I copied them down.
The thing that fascinates me about this book though, has nothing to do with the book itself. Tucked into the back pages is a list. It was originally written on yellow school paper or a yellow legal pad but it's been folded for so long (and maybe unfolded and refolded) that it's now six separate small pieces. The list is dated 27 December 1978. It is 40 years old. It begins with a "statement of lifetime goals". Then it has a "statement of five year goals". It ends with "Six months to live goals" I hope this last was a hypothetical, "man I need to get motivated" kind of category and not and actual fact.
I am a life long list maker myself. Additionally, as an amateur sociologist, I'm fascinated by other people's random, seemingly meaningless, everyday debris. To do lists. Grocery lists. I think you can learn things about people by looking at these things.
I think the writer is a woman although the note offers no definitive proof of this. Since I don't know, I'm going to go ahead and refer to the writer as her. She wanted to travel. She wanted to find real love. She wanted to be healthier. The thing which calls to me most of all though, is that she wanted to write. And she wanted to be able to support herself and her future family by writing. And though I don't know her at all, I feel like she could be a kindred spirit.
We all dream dreams. Sometimes by the time we reach middle age (or even sooner) we give up on those dreams. We might realize they aren't practical or they are actually someone else's dream for us. Sometimes we lose our youth or idealism or time just gets away from us. This loss of dreams can be tragic or be met simply with a shrug and a "well, you know..."
But I'm intrigued by how we get there. How do we get from point A to point B? We are ever in a process of becoming the people we are. Every experience shapes us. Even apparently trivial choices can become a very big deal in hindsight.
I would love to know if this person met her goals. Did she travel? Did she find love? Did she follow her dream of writing as a career? The book of quotes was published in 1991, so clearly the list was initially written before the book was acquired. On the back cover, someone (I assume the lists' author) has pasted half of a snapshot of the ocean. Another clue. Another connection. I too love the ocean.
The internet has made our world smaller. Perhaps someone will read this blog who will recognize the list writer. Perhaps the list writer herself (or himself) will even read this post. I'm obsessed. Every part of me is rooting for this person to have reached their goals. Somehow, it gives me hope. If it's you, let me know how it turned out for you.
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