"Don't put all your eggs in one basket," is another way of saying it. Don't make your focus in life too narrow. Keep your options open, so that if one door closes, there are a few others that are still open.
Politicians will say to those pushing the envelope, "cover your ass." That is, make sure that you have a back up story, an alibi, a way of getting out of the "fix" you may be getting yourself in. I am sure there are many more phrases that say the same thing. They are colourful and convey the message, in an image or a few well chosen words.
No phrase, though, is as striking, as Archy's (the cockroach from my last post) take on the whole situation -
if you will drink
hair restorer follow
every dram with some
good standard
depilatory
as a chaser
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Cockroach Canapes maybe :) |
OK, so maybe you have to be a cockroach to really appreciate the metaphor. I am back to Archy and I may come back to him again. We can learn from cockroaches, they have been on this earth longer than man - there is something to be said for collective wisdom!!
Then again there is something to be said for those who put all their eggs in one basket for one glorious moment. This is from another of Archy's "posts" -
The Lesson of the Moth
i was talking to a moth
the other evening
he was trying to break into
an electric light bulb
and fry himself on the wires
why do you fellows
pull this stunt i asked him
because it is the conventional
thing for moths or why
if that had been an uncovered
candle instead of an electric
light bulb you would
now be a small unsightly cinder
have you no sense
plenty of it he answered
but at times we get tired
of using it
we get bored with the routine
and crave beauty
and excitement
fire is beautiful
and we know that if we get
too close it will kill us
but what does that matter
it is better to be happy
for a moment
and be burned up with beauty
than to live a long time
and be bored all the while
so we wad all our life up
into one little roll
and then we shoot the roll
that is what life is for
it is better to be a part of beauty
for one instant and then cease to
exist than to exist forever
and never be a part of beauty
our attitude toward life
is come easy go easy
we are like human beings
used to be before they became
too civilized to enjoy themselves
and before i could argue him
out of his philosophy
he went and immolated himself
on a patent cigar lighter
i do not agree with him
myself i would rather have
half the happiness and twice
the longevity
but at the same time i wish
there was something i wanted
as badly as he wanted to fry himself
archy
As pragmatic as most of us are, most of the time, I think that there lives within each of us that small dark death wish - that desire to have something so all consuming that we would give up everything for it!!!
Have an amazing day
Hi Carol,
ReplyDeleteThat post did make me smile!
On the question you raise though, I've had, and still do have, so many interests, that I've never been able or willing to focus enough on one of them at the exclusion of the others.
I've always had some envy of people who only ever wanted to do/be just one thing, and could focus everything on it.
I do still like the variety of interestd that I have though!
Cheers,
Gordon
At the butterfly exhibition at the Montreal Botanical Garden last year, I saw a type of moth that doesn't eat at all. It doesn't have a "mouth" nor a digestive system. It lives only to reproduce and feed its predators. I thought it was fascinating and a tad absurd.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice day, Carol!
Gloria Kearns