Life is what happens while you're not getting what you want.
This was spoken in response to his wife's saying (about teens): Well, it's good for them to learn that sometimes you don't get what you want. And he said: Sometimes?!...
I don't know whether she is currently talking to him or not.
Discuss. I'll be back tomorrow.
Between a husband and wife? It's very biblical to share happily with one another.
ReplyDeleteFor years my kids thought we were really poor. Now they understand we are frugal. We give them more than enough, but never all that they want. There is no 3rd car for the driving teen. We live in a wealthy county and I see BMWs in the school student parking lot (and even a Hummer!) -- but my teen has to be happy if he gets to borrow his dad's Daewoo instead of my Kia minivan. (Apparently, minivans = social pariah status for teen boys.)
What I like about his statement is the double dose of cynicism it embraces. Not only does life suck because whatever happens is out of your control anyway, but it happens to you when you are basically frustated and disappointed by never getting what you want.
ReplyDeleteKudos to the man who can toss off this quip at a New Year's Party (of all occasions!).
Blessings,
Faith
It's a slightly different slant on the John Lennon line: Life is what happens when you're busy making plans.
ReplyDeleteI think this statement is one of the most brilliant statements I have ever heard...
ReplyDeleteI wish they would have followed up with a discussion of how to get the world to make the best of what they do have and learn to enjoy it and be content with it while still finding ways to be charitable because there is always someone who has even less. THAT is what our country needs more of - instead of thinking we need to stimulate a struggling economy with more cash in someone's pocket while increasing the country's debt or giving fat companies and banks billions of dollars after they made bad business decisions and have no clear plan of how they are going to fix the problem.
The message our country gives us all is that if you don't have what you want - then you can rack up more debt to get it.
Not the right message.
KEEP BELIEVING
Ahh, to impart this lesson on my teenagers...the oldest one in particular.
ReplyDeleteI think it's akin to the saying that contentment isn't getting what you want, it's being happy with what you have. And often what you want is contradictory to something else you want. I want to take that long-hoped-for trip to Italy with my husband. We never had a honeymoon, preferring to save for a house (and that was definitely the smart thing to do). Now we have kids, who I wanted very much.
ReplyDeleteOf course there's the immortal Mick: You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need. (Now I need to go listen to some Stones.)
Um, this is off topic but since Refrigerator Posts are in jeopardy, I'm going to go out on a limb.
ReplyDeleteThe other day I heard that one of the best ways to quiet a cough is rub Vicks Vapo Rub on the bottom of their/your feet. The skin down there is thin & it will get absorbed into the blood stream faster.
Let us know if it works & we can hope to see salsa pictures again!
If that is his definition of life, then, yes, life isn't much fun. It sounds like his definition of "life" is more like "this is the real world and it's nothing but blood, sweat, and tears."
ReplyDeleteEh. There is certainly much truth to it (the curse of the Fall, anyone?), but real life is finding joy in what we have, even when we don't get what we want.
~Luke
Luke, you misinterpret how he said it. I couldn't convey the tone right, but he said it laughing...and he is very much a carpe diem type person who enjoys his life, which is probably why it sounded so funny coming out of his mouth.
ReplyDeleteThose bothersome inflections... [grr].
ReplyDeleteOh well.
Dear readers, please disregard my comment (though, I think it still stands as true, just not relevant to the current post). Sometimes I have trouble with reading comprehension [smile].
~Luke
I was going to write something, but then Amy went and said it already. I sing Mick Jagger to my kids when they want something they aren't getting. . .They love it. really.
ReplyDeleteMy oldest watches the youngest 2 after she gets home from school, so I can go to work. She has all the younger kids for 2 hours until hubby gets home. She gets paid well-$10 an hour for the 3 hours she is alone with the little Monsters, er angels, until hubby gets home. Anytime she wants something,I remind her she can pay for it with her own money. She hates that.
ReplyDeleteWow. That's so profound it could only come from someone while they're drunk. It's like you drink one too many, your inhibition drops, your hear some comment from someone you love, and then out it spills -- the buddha-esque truism.
ReplyDeleteI like that guy.
ReplyDeleteI want to hear about the conversation he and his wife had on the way home. Hmmmmm...
ReplyDelete