"Service is the rent you pay for room on this planet." -Shirley Chisholm
"Memory is a child walking along the seashore. You never can tell what small pebble it will pick up and store away among its treasured things." -Pierce Harris
from Belief net mailings
No time for a full post, but these two quotes caught my eye as I was trying to get through some of my email.
Two weeks are left in the quarter and then final exams to finish up. I am slowly drowning in papers to revise, projects to finish up and a sudden increase in actual paid work, along with reading that I am behind on, which must be done very soon. This post is more like a little cry in the dark- I am still here, don't forget me. Or maybe it is a plea for sympathy. ;-)
Sympathy is one of those things that seems smarmy for me to ask for or even hint at, yet usually makes me feel better when received. I wonder if the feelings (mine) associated with asking for sympathy or complaining "too much" have anything to do with a cultural or even familial sort of "suck it up" or "people are starving in_ fill in the blank_' attitude instilled early on?
Memories, even those negative ones, or maybe especially those negative ones, encoded with a child's special twist of interpretation- are powerful.
edited to make it more clear that it is my feelings about complaining and asking for sympathy that I am talking about, not others. I have always found it easier to concentrate on, sympathize with and even empathize with others, rather than to give myself the same consideration.
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