Beginnings are sudden, but also insidious. They creep up on you sideways, they keep to the shadows, they lurk unrecognized. Then, later, they spring.
Interpretation
Beginnings can be unexpected and unnoticed until they suddenly take form.
In this quote, Margaret Atwood reflects on the nature of new beginnings, suggesting that they often arise subtly and unexpectedly rather than in a straightforward manner. It highlights the idea that while we may not always recognize the signs of change, these beginnings are always present, ready to emerge when the time is right.
In practice
This quote can be used during a commencement speech to inspire graduates about the unexpected nature of their futures.
If I am good enough and quiet enough, perhaps after all they will let me go; but it’s not easy being quiet and good, it’s like hanging on to the edge of a bridge when you’ve already fallen over; you don’t seem to be moving, just dangling there, and yet it is taking all your strength.
I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off.
What else can I do? Once you've gone this far you aren't fit for anything else. Something happens to your mind. You're overqualified, overspecialized, and everybody knows it. Nobody in any other game would be crazy enough to hire me. I wouldn't even make a good ditch-digger, I'd start tearing apart the sewer-system, trying to pick-axe and unearth all those chthonic symbols - pipes, valves, cloacal conduits... No, no. I'll have to be a slave in the paper-mines for all time.
We love each other, that’s true whatever it means, but we aren’t good at it; for some it’s a talent, for others only an addiction.
I've learned quite a lot, over the years, by avoiding what I was supposed to be learning.
Knowing too much about other people puts you in their power, they have a claim on you, you are forced to understand their reasons for doing things and then you are weakened.
My neighborhood didn't really encourage women, though it didn't prevent women from progressing, either.
You cannot expect to achieve new goals or move beyond your present circumstances unless you change.
I think that all human systems require continuous renewal. They rigidify. They get stuff in the joints. They forget what they cared about. The forces against it are nostalgia and the enormous appeal of having things the way they always have been, appeals to a supposedly happy past. But we've got to move on.
Revolution is not a one time event.
The world has changed from when I was a young teen feeling ashamed for being gay. The issue of gay marriage is now a political issue. That would have been unthinkable when I was young.
From the pain come the dream_x000D_ From the dream come the vision_x000D_ From the vision come the people_x000D_ From the people come the power_x000D_ From this power come the change.
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