You may have noticed . . .
. . . that the place looks a little different.
I was all excited about my Voice of Reason 2.0 and spent hours and hours modifying a new template--changing colors, fonts, importing graphics, IMing Cicada to ask for her opinion on things, etc. It was going to be this gorgeous and daring yet tasteful expression of my personality. It was going to have welcoming fonts and pleasing color combinations with custom-made backgrounds.
In short, it was going to be perfect.
Only the more I worked on it the less I liked it. Suddenly it was too bright, too loud, to difficult to read. The little flaws that seemed unimportant when I was still in the "let's just see" phase became glaring and horrible as I approached the "let's take this out and show people" phase. Last night I stared at it, imagining my friends taking one look and going, "Ugh! And that's her personality?" But I felt like I had to make it work because I'd already put so much of myself and my time and energy into this thing!
But then the smarter half of my brain took over, reminding me of a certain Very Important Truth (get out your pencils, kids!):
Simply putting time and energy into something doesn't make it worthwhile.
I am not saying that worthwhile things don't require time and effort, because they do, or that I think everyone should be quitters, because they shouldn't. However, when we recognize that a pursuit isn't worthwhile, quitting becomes the smart choice.
But too often we find ourselves plugging doggedly ahead, wasting time and postponing the inevitable. You see this all the time--in dating relationships, in career paths, on drives through rural Idaho. We're tempted to say, "It's true that I'm miserable, but hey, I've come this far, and maybe it'll get better. Plus, I really owe it to (-----) to see this through."
Um, no. No you don't. It's that kind of thinking that almost got me married to the wrong guy a few years ago. Today I would be wearing twinsets and pearls in some New Jersey apartment with an investment banker husband I never saw and wasn't attracted to. Also I would probably be hooked on uppers. And it's not like I could just say,"Oh, I changed my mind" at that point. Is this what you really want for me? Is it??
Point is, you're not getting Voice of Reason 2.0. You're getting Blogger's TicTac (Blueberry) by Dan Cederholm. Thanks Dan, you're the best.
I'm Steph, a librarian and mom of 3 (not sure how that happened). Let's chat books, food, Sumptuous Literary Adaptations, poop, knitting and maybe some crazy Mormon Feminism.
6 comments:
I like your new place very much. Do you like my new photo? And hey, even though you worked really long and hard on VofR.2, I totally support your decision to bag the whole thing. Well done, you. I am going to print out your Words of Reason and glue them to the kids' bathroom mirror.
I love your new photo! You look like one of the Von Trapp kids. Now I must go find my 3rd grade picture and use it, because that was the last school picture of mine that looked cute.
Did you ever watch Dodgeball? I wouldn't blame you if you hadn't---I watched it on my way back from Lake Powell only because my whole district had been quoting it all weekend.
Anyway, there is this one great part where the leader of the dodgeball team (Vince Vaughn) quits and is in a bar. Lance Larsen comes up to talk to him and finds out that he had quit. He says, "Quit? You know, once I was thinking of quitting when I was diagnosed with brain, lung and testicular cancer all at the same time. But with the love and support of my friends and family, I got back on the bike and won the Tour de France five times in a row. But I'm sure you have a good reason to quit. So what are you dying of that's keeping you from the finals?"
Except that I totally support your quitting. Ever learn about sunk costs from Kearl?
Hee. Yeah, I remember the Lance Armstrong cameo. That was pretty much the one part during that movie when I wasn't cringing and resenting the friend who brought me. Only I may have muttered something like, "Yeah, only then you freaking LEFT your family and hooked up with Sheryl Crow, Mr. It's Not About the Bike."
Never learned anything from Kearl, but that sounds like the kind of thing I would be all over.
Cicada, Nemesis was nice enough to point out your error in a subtle way, but I cannot be subtle. Mostly b/c Abby emailed me and said that Lance Larson is a poet in the English department, and she thought that was really funny, b/c she's fairly sure LL didn't win the Tour de France five times. She isn't sure about the cancers. I bet he didn't leave his family either.
I never saw Dodgeball, and I don't know anyone in the BYU English department, so I have no business talking about any of this, but Abby forgot her password and can't comment. So.
Only it was 5 when he did the cameo, I think.
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