Misremembered Wisdom
You know how you misremember things, or remember things that didn't happen, but that somehow these things are meaningful anyway? Years ago* I was a regular reader of the spirituality and mythology journal Parabola, and came across something that I found inspiring and insightful. The thing is, when I went back to the article to get the exact wording on the quote in question, the sentence simply wasn't there. I could see how I might have inferred it, but as far as it being real or accurate, no.
So at the risk of misquoting or misremembering, I'll go ahead and share a couple related pieces of wisdom that really speak to me. The first is something from Bryan Stevenson that a co-worker mentioned a couple weeks ago. Stevenson, who works to reduce mass and unjust incarceration, said that it's a mistake to judge someone by their worst behavior. That's certainly a standard by which I would like to be judged. And that made me remember something from the film version of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband, specifically a scene in which someone says that you can't truly know a person until you love them. Or did he say you can't understand something until you see the beauty in it?
Perhaps I am guilty of Oscar Wilde Wisdom Inflation Syndrome (OWWIS), whereby every wise or witty thing gets credited to Wilde, because, well, he was so very, very witty and wise. No matter. I'll stand by the sentiments, however misremembered and/or invented they might be.
* I've got to stop starting sentences this way.
UPDATE: 12-29-14
In his autobiography, Straight Life, jazz alto sax great Art Pepper told a story along these lines. He recalled how critics responded enthusiastically to his performance of a certain standard, praising his inventive melodic inventions. Pepper said that he wasn't trying to create variations. Rather, that's just the way he thought the melody went and he got it wrong.
So at the risk of misquoting or misremembering, I'll go ahead and share a couple related pieces of wisdom that really speak to me. The first is something from Bryan Stevenson that a co-worker mentioned a couple weeks ago. Stevenson, who works to reduce mass and unjust incarceration, said that it's a mistake to judge someone by their worst behavior. That's certainly a standard by which I would like to be judged. And that made me remember something from the film version of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband, specifically a scene in which someone says that you can't truly know a person until you love them. Or did he say you can't understand something until you see the beauty in it?
Perhaps I am guilty of Oscar Wilde Wisdom Inflation Syndrome (OWWIS), whereby every wise or witty thing gets credited to Wilde, because, well, he was so very, very witty and wise. No matter. I'll stand by the sentiments, however misremembered and/or invented they might be.
* I've got to stop starting sentences this way.
UPDATE: 12-29-14
In his autobiography, Straight Life, jazz alto sax great Art Pepper told a story along these lines. He recalled how critics responded enthusiastically to his performance of a certain standard, praising his inventive melodic inventions. Pepper said that he wasn't trying to create variations. Rather, that's just the way he thought the melody went and he got it wrong.
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