It is not enough to reach for the brass ring. You must also enjoy the merry go round.
Interpretation
Striving for goals is important, but one must also find joy in the journey.
This quote emphasizes that while achieving one's goals (symbolized by reaching for the brass ring) is significant, it is equally crucial to appreciate and enjoy the experiences and moments that accompany the pursuit of those goals (represented by the merry-go-round). Life is not solely about reaching milestones but also about savouring the process and experiences along the way.
In practice
In a graduation speech, one might say this to encourage students to appreciate their time in school as much as their future careers.
I've learned a lot of things about myself through singing. I used to have a certain dislike of the audience, not as individual people, but as a giant body who was judging me. Of course, it wasn`t really them judging me. It was me judging me. Once I got past that fear, it freed me up, not just when I was performing but in other parts of my life.
Singing has been a cherished gift, and my inability to sing has been a devastating blow.
My mother was terribly important to me, and I know how much I yearned for her in my youth, but I don't think I truly trusted her.
I come from a long line of below-stairs maids and gardeners. Good ol' peasant stock. My mother and her sister made a quantum leap out of that life. Then I made another quantum leap.
Every time I go out to perform, believe me. You never lose that fear of, 'I hope I do it right. I hope I don't fall flat on my face. I hope this will be good for them.'
Success is terrifying. Like happiness, it is often appreciated in retrospect. It's only later that you place it in perspective. Years from now, I'll look back and say, βGod, wasn't it wonderful.β
Ups and downs in life are very important to keep us going, because a straight line even in an ECG means we are not alive
There's a scary moment when you realise you're no longer the youngest person in the room. Especially if you've been a successful young person. That's followed, of course, by the realisation that you're actually the oldest person in the room.
So since I'm still here livin', I guess I will live on. I could've died for love-- But for livin' I was born.
At night, the house thick with sleep, she would peer out her bedroom window at the trees and sky and feel the presence of a mystery. Some possibility that included her--separate from her present life and without its limitations. A secret. Riding in the car with her father, she would look out at other cars full of people she'd never seen, any one of whom she might someday meet and love, and would feel the world holding her making its secret plans.
I have spent my life going from mania to mania. Somehow it has all paid off.
Ravens are the birds I'll miss most when I die. If only the darkness into which we must look were composed of the black light of their limber intelligence. If only we did not have to die at all. Instead, become ravens.
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