Oct 27, 2010

Laugh, Cry, Debate

I developed a new life motto this week courtesy of Libba Bray, and this is it:

"Be kind when you can, and forthright when you need to kick ass."

It comes from one of my favorite blog posts of all time, and this week's Debate. In case you missed this post making the rounds on Twitter, Bray received a...concerning question from a reader. And as Bray notes before giving her response, "the trouble with answering a question like this is that it makes basic One Size Fits All assumptions about happiness and prosperity and security."

Yep. And making assumptions is also the subject of the Cry article. Honestly, it did not make me cry so much as it made angry, and this may have ended up as Laugh, Get Mad, Debate, but The Bloggess posted a response to the article that swayed my response by arguing that the author "doesn't deserve our hatred. She deserves our pity."

And now, on a completely different subject, a pie chart on reasons people feel sad when reading a book. Go have a Laugh!

Stumbled across any posts recently that made you Laugh, Cry, or Debate? Tell us about them in the comments!

3 comments:

Susan said...

Oh, I loved that Libba Bray post. I felt so empowered after reading it. ::sigh:: She is my hero.

angelarene said...

Libba Bray rocks!! I think part of the reason that she's such a great writer is because she's obviously such a great person :)

Joseph L. Selby said...

I read that post when it first came out. If my mom had had her way, I'd be a priest right now, so thank god (a pun!) I didn't listen to her on that one. Equally, my wife (who is also thankful I'm not a priest) became a teacher because her father told her she'd never make it as a musician or dancer. She was a great teacher for eight years, but because her heart wasn't in it, she inevitably left.

At the same time, it reminds me of my theatre senior capstone from college. There was a discussion between two other students. One said she was nervous about how risky acting was. She had to have a plan for everything and the fact that she could go years without work frightened her. She preferred the security of teaching.

The other student (a huge fan of Mamet), quoted how one must risk and suffer for one's art. If one had a backup plan, one would never endure the hardships of the profession to succeed. This is pretty true.

They both had great points and I told them so. I also related that the year before I had been homeless and lived in the back seat of my car. I wanted to be a writer. I understood the hardships. But if it ever came down to living in my car again, I would give up writing and work at McDonald's in a heartbeat. Having been homeless a second time since then, this absolutely holds true.

So, while I agree with her father that having security is a good thing, he's trying to play too large a role on what is secure for her and what profession would earn her that security.

On the other hand, if wanting something was all it took, I'd be a best selling author by now.