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Quote of the Day: Quod Error Illustrandum
“Do it haphazardly, a tiny bit at a time, and badly.… [T]he fool is the precursor to the saviour. Why? Because you’re a fool when you start something new.… And so, the willingness to be a fool is the precursor to transformation.” – Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, Take Aim, Even Badly.
“If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly” – Granny Weatherwax, in Terry Pratchett’s Equal Rites.
Of the three quotations in today’s slightly erroneously (a-ha-ha-ha) named Quote of the Day, the one I probably like the best is Granny Weatherwax’s. She’s lighting a fire at the time and, though a witch, doesn’t want to use magic to do it. I always thought (well, after I realised one of the ways you could look at it) that there was something in that.
But getting back to Jordan Peterson, there really is an awful lot to even just the scanty portions of the short video that that quote is taken from. Take aim, even badly. If there’s something you’re avoiding doing, realise that sometimes it doesn’t matter just how, exactly, you get it done. Pick at it, do a tiny little thing, just to get started. Don’t worry if you don’t think you know how to do it perfectly, or even well. Don’t worry if you make mistakes along the way – however silly, however many. Embrace the virtue of necessity, and do what you can, however you can.
For – as I’m having cause to be reminded, as I bumble through my adventures in illustration – after all is said and done,
“Every bursted bubble has a glory.…
Every glowing path that goes astray,
Shows you how to find a better way.…[And] up from the ashes, up from the ashes, grow the roses of success!…
So when it gets distressing,
It’s a blessing!…Onward and upward you must press!
Yes, yes!
Till up from the ashes, up from the ashes, grow the roses of success.”– Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
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Published in Group Writing
Success, indeed.
“There’s magic in the wake of a fiasco!”
Story of my life. LOL. As for Jordan Peterson, if he’d never said, done, or written anything but that seven-minute video, he’d deserve a bloody medal.
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Love it! A step at a time.
What do a hundred bursted bubbles have?
Interestink concept! Er, a bar of soap? Clean dishes? A philosopher looking about for his bath towel? (What prizes do I win? I hope I get the cuddly toy!)
Or a hundred glories?
A sticky soap film.
A rescued rubber-ducky!
See, this philosophy game isn’t as hard as we think!
Of course, post-sudsian philosophy isn’t always the most cheerful. I think I’d prefer the Archimedean, m’self, which postulates that there’s always a towel handy if you know where to look.