Scrapbook
37 watchers
Jun 2023
9:30pm, 21 Jun 2023
6,197 posts
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Oscar the Grouch
Perhaps she needs to do some rolling in the deep?
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Jun 2023
10:02am, 22 Jun 2023
146,330 posts
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GregP
The fig tree metaphor, which isn't quite how it was explained to me by a random at the gym this morning, or by me to Nellers an hour or so later: I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet. ― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar |
Jun 2023
10:13am, 22 Jun 2023
79,773 posts
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Diogenes
I've always had a mental equivalent of a hallway of doors. You can choose any door but once you go through you can't come back and explore the others. As you stand dithering they begin to lock until and your choice reduces until you either rush through the last one remaining open or are left trapped in the hall.
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Jun 2023
10:15am, 22 Jun 2023
37,543 posts
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Ocelot Spleens
That is a long definition of procrastinate
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Jun 2023
10:18am, 22 Jun 2023
146,331 posts
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GregP
Probably one for the Retirement/o50 mires. I have a pot of money labelled 'long haul fund'...
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Jun 2023
10:18am, 22 Jun 2023
97,975 posts
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swittle
This reminded me of Bunny Wailer's song, 'Fig Tree', from his album, 'Blackheart Man.' |
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Jun 2023
10:20am, 22 Jun 2023
79,774 posts
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Diogenes
It's not just about procrastinating though, that's only a corollary, it's about the choices we make, how we can only live one life, not all possible lives. You can't, for example, marry your childhood sweetheart and live happily ever after and also have a string of exotic lovers. Not unless your sweetheart has a very understanding nature.
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Jun 2023
10:21am, 22 Jun 2023
13,912 posts
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Jock Itch
Dvorak
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Jun 2023
10:22am, 22 Jun 2023
13,913 posts
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Jock Itch
I read that as 'unwelcomed minge'. Guess it could be. :0)
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Jun 2023
10:22am, 22 Jun 2023
40,851 posts
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Nellers
Hmmm. Interesting thought. I think I prefer the hall of doorways because once you go through one door you can't go back, but there's a whole new set of doors there that you can choose from, and so on until your last breath. And further, some of those doors might lead you back to other hallways that you've detoured past with an earlier choice. You never know. The fig tree version is a bit final, like once you've chosen your path it's set in stone and all the other options are closed off forever. I don't think that's always the way life is. |
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