Song Lyrics Make Great Quotes!

So don't you worry your pretty little mind
People throw rocks at things that shine
And life makes love look hard
The stakes are high, the water's rough, but this love is ours
Taylor Swift

I can't help it. You probably knew I would eventually have to throw some song lyrics in as quotes. I mean, c'mon! Songs make for great quoting! And since I did a whole year of songs I've got a lot to draw from should I want or need to.

So this one stopped me the first time I heard the line, "People throw rocks at things that shine." Oh we are so horrible to each other because of jealousy or other emotions (self-righteousness comes to mind)! Something in us doesn't like it when things are going good, great, for someone else and so we throw "rocks" - negative thoughts, negative opinions, we insert ourselves in and try to be divisive...all under the guise of, "I'm just telling you this because I care about you and don't want to see you get hurt." Guess what?!? YOU are the one doing the hurting! Sheesh. Now, let me 'fess up. I know I'm guilty of this. We all are because it seems to be the default. We default to throwing rocks before we would hand over a bouquet of flowers. (I'm trying to carry the analogy through *grin*) And this default seems to be the most prevalent in Americans. No really. I have several friends who live in other countries , namely Africa, and they have observed the same thing. We Americans are quick to throw rocks - negativity - before we are to be positive and choose to believe the best about the person or situation. If we really did, unselfishly, love someone then when they had/have shining moments in their life we would be cheering them on not trying to knock them down in the name of "reality check" or however we try to justify our rock throwing.
I challenge you, and myself, to start handing out bouquets of flowers and lay the rocks down.

Comments

Butter someone up

There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.

A dime a dozen

"It's said that in the year 1796, the first U.S. dimes were produced for circulation. Hence, it would make sense for this phrase to originate sometime after." Read more here . Today the phrase carries the meaning that something is cheap or without value if it can be lumped in with other similar or exactly-like things. It's more of an insult than anything.

Life according to van Gogh...sort of

There are two ways of thinking about painting, how not to do it and how to do it; how to do it -- with much drawing and little color; how not to do it -- with much color and little drawing. Vincent van Gogh in a l etter to Theo van Gogh, April 1882 Life is a little bit like today's quote from van Gogh. Some of us live life focusing on the drawing - the details - and have very little color. Others of us go for the color and forsake, to a degree, the drawing - the details. Unlike painting, according to van Gogh, one is not wrong over the other but somewhere in between the two would be the best I would think. If you look at some of van Gogh's paintings I feel like you can see where he might have struggled between the "how to do it" and the " how not to do it" (as he admittedly loved color so much but knew he had to focus more on the drawing) and that seems to be reflected in his life as well. In the end he wasn't able to find the ...

Search This Blog