Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so. After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns, we ourselves flash and yearn
Interpretation
Life can often feel monotonous, but we should acknowledge and appreciate its beauty and depth.
In this quote, John Berryman suggests that while life may sometimes feel dull and unexciting, it is essential to recognize the moments of passion and yearning that punctuate our existence. The imagery of the 'flashing' sky and the 'yearning' sea serves to remind us that despite life's mundane aspects, there are profound experiences and emotions that enrich our journey.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about finding joy in everyday moments.
There is no such thing as Freedom (though it is the most important condition of human life, after Humility, -which does not exist either). There is only Slavery (walls around one) and absence-of-Slavery (ability to walk in any direction, or to remain still).
We must travel in the direction of our fear.
Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.
The artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he's in business.
One must be ruthless with one's own writing or someone else will be.
Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so. After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns, we ourselves flash and yearn, and moreover my mother told me as a boy (repeatedly) 'Ever to confess you're bored means you have no inner Resources.' I conclude now I have no inner resources, because I am heavy bored.
I'm the kind of person who would rather rock in my rocking chair when I'm old and regret a few things that I did than to sit there and regret that I never tried.
There's no way of knowing that your last good day is Your Last Good Day. At the time, it is just another good day.
You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories.
If you were to go, and hopefully someday you will, you would see a lot of paintings of dead people. You'd see Jesus on the cross, and you'd see a dude get stabbed in the neck, and you'd see people dying at sea and in battle and a parade of martyrs. But Not. One. Single. Cancer. Kid. Nobody biting it from the plague or smallpox or yellow fever or whatever, because there is no glory in illness. There is no meaning to it. There is no honor in dying of.
Hunger has always been more or less at my elbow when I played, but now I began to wake up at night to find hunger standing at my bedside, staring at my gauntly.
People who mattered could not take the humdrum world. But this was not the world, it was enchantment; and all of it was mine.
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