The Perfect Space
During possibly THE most delightful episode of Sherlock imagined (3.2. It’s basically fanfic.), John gets married and Sherlock serves as his best man. I don’t feel like I’m spoiling anything here – this is a detail released weeks ago on both sides of the pond (but, don’t worry, no ACTUAL spoilers follow if you haven’t gotten a chance to watch the episode). As part of the Best Man duties, Sherlock of course gives a speech at the reception. I watched that episode while suffering in my own polar vortex (it was 10 degrees as a HIGH in Nashville yesterday, which should never, ever happen) and not an hour later, my brother called and while chatting mentioned things he’d learned in a Dale Carnegie course.
Those two instances of "speech making genius" got me thinking…
So far, I’ve made only media-related resolutions for 2014*. But I’ve been on Pinterest lately (note that no Buzzfeed resolution), and in the midst of all the workout pins, Doctor Who pins and kids’ crafts pins, there are empowering quotes floating around for the new year. I have an ENTIRE BOARD dedicated to these; however, when I’m revisiting old stuff, I never choose to look at them. So, in honor of Sherlock’s legendary speech and my brother’s success with Dale Carnegie, I’m going to focus on ONE quote each month, and resolve to live in its shadow.
First up: As tempting as it is to live with my margarita quote for the month of January, I’m going to go with something else. But still something easy to remember:
The Avett Brothers surely have a way with words, don’t they? That may seem obvious, since they’re hugely popular and critically acclaimed, but I’m thinking of something different here – it’s not so much their way with words as their way with Southern words – Southern THEMES – that appeals to me. A quote I once had on the home page of this blog sums up what I’m trying to say better than I can. In an article for Southern Living Rick Bragg said, “They say we Southerners live in the past. That, they say, is our problem; the past is dead, Faulkner or no Faulkner. I guess I could try to explain, to tell them that for us memory is not an inventory, not a catalog of events, but a time machine. It lifts us off the dull treadmill of grown-up responsibilities to a time of adventure and wonder. The past is not dead, and so the dead are never really gone. We resurrect them, daily, for one more story, one more buck dance or ball game, or one more cast into the cool water.” To me, The Avett Brothers take this sense of the past and project it into the future; with “decide what to be and go be it” they encourage us to take what we know about ourselves – about our pasts, our ancestry, our history, our family, our obligation, our ambition – and use that to propel ourselves to where we want to be. Resurrect the past long enough to sift through what we want to build upon and what we want to relegate to “learning experience,” and move everything with us, forward.
That’s my plan for the remainder of January. I’ll check back in later and tell y’all how it’s going.
*No new DVDs in 2014. No new books until I read the ones I have (Kindle AND hard copy). No Buzzfeed.
I use an image in the blog index that is really fantastic. You can order a print of it here.
