Question of the Day | 06/20/2008 12:00 am
What is the new meaning of 'having it all'?
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I feel incredibly lucky in my life. There have been incredible challenges, but I wouldn’t change a thing. Everyday is a day to get up and say “thanks for this”. And every night is a night to say “Thanks for that.”
I have had more than I could have ever imagined, but I have no idea what having it all is. Just like there is no perfection, there is no having it all.
Maybe just feeling satisfied with life, warts and all, is having it all.
To me, ‘having it all’ means being able to look myself in the mirror at the end of each day and say to myself:
Thank you for this day.
Today I told all those I love, that I love them.
Today I treated my dogs and all living things with love and compassion.
Today I did not lie, cheat or steal in any way, shape or form.
Today I helped someone in need.
Today I did my part in protecting MY constitution.
Tomorrow I promise to do the same.
And all Californians reading this, it’s urgent that you contact your Senators before Tuesday June 24, telling them you oppose any law that will silence American voices! - http://www.navs.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7511&news_iv_ctrl=120…
California bill AB 2296, known as the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, has passed the state Assembly and is making its way to the state Senate. This bill would have a chilling effect on the rights of animal advocates who are legally and responsibly collecting evidence of animal abuse by people engaged in animal “enterprises.” The enterprises include agricultural use, pet shops and puppy mills, researchers, and other uses of animals.
If this bill is passed, the video footage that revealed abuses at the California slaughterhouse operated by Westland/Hallmark Meat Company may have been unlawful, as the perpetrators of the abusive treatment of livestock may claim that airing the exposé put them reasonably in fear for their safety.
Please sign here: http://impeachment.kucinich.us/petition/
Having it all is not material. It’s the knowledge of the evanescence of life and how it can stop short in an instant—there and gone. In Donne’s Holy Sonnet Death be not proud: the final line—Helen Gardner’s text:
And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die.
Note the comma, just a simple comma: a pause, a short breath, a caesura between life and death and eternal life in Donne’s sonnet—and for Anne, a comma too: a caesura, a short breath, a pause, and she was no more.
That’s losing it all and after there is no more. Having it all—what a joke.
In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo grasps the essence of this: Oh I am fortune’s fool. Yes I am.
Each of us has our own dreams, and too many are founded by envy of others. We THINK that because they are rich, have beautiful clothes, and are on magazine covers that those people have things we would give anything to have. I may be wrong but usually those who “want it all” haven’t as yet gotten the maturity and just plain “years” to realize that each of us has good days and not so good days (OK, “bad” days) no matter what social strata we are in. We think that money can bring happiness, physical beauty will make us attract that allusive LOVE that we all want more than anything.
But — look at the magazine covers - and we see that the rich and famous seem to have more disasters than we do. If “all that money can by” is having it all, I am giving it a very large PASS.
“Having it all” is the impossible dream. “Having it great” is to have a great love and a family that makes you smile, laughter that comes often enough that it makes up for the sad times we all experience no matter what, and
the warmth of the give and take of good friends that are beside you in good times and bad. Frankly, we are the lucky ones, aren’t we — for we are living REAL LIVES that are at times pure heaven.
The ones that have everything, they are desperate to find pleasure in the little things/nothing. And the ones that have nothing think pleasure comes from having everything.
Liza, that’s interesting. For me it’s just the opposite. I find that those who have the least, find the most pleasure in little things and intangibles.
I think it’s much the same as the old meaning of “having it all” - loving relationships, a sense of purpose, good health, humor, empathy, gratitude, and a belief in something greater than oneself.
What is the new meaning of ‘having it all’. I guess the first thing to answer is what is the OLD meaning of ‘having it all’. For a woman it would probably be having a husband, children, home, security assuming that you were in love with your husband, your children were healthy and wise, the home was paid for and there were a few dollars in the bank. I guess in a word it could be called contentment.
Now, as for the NEW meaning of ‘having it all’, I would suggest that women have learned that contentment is not a synonym for happiness. We might want a husband but what we really want is a mate. Someone to love and whom we know loves us in return. Children would be a bonus, healthy or not. A house? No, a home. Security? Yeah, we all want to have a few extra dollars and maybe a few more after that. Woman are no longer afraid of their passions….so for a woman to ‘have it all’, she will have learned to express her passions and to live within that sphere so that she may attempt to achieve more than contentment. In short, the NEW meaning for ‘having it all’ would include the lyrics to the song, “she did it her way”.
Bonnie - I must have it all. I have made my kids promise to get drunk and sing “She did it here way” with Frank S. when I pass. lmao
Maggi D - Laughing right along with you. The only drawback, I think, is that women who do not settle for “contentment” often will find themselves with less than if they took the “old” path of having it all. We don’t get it all, but I think we do better when we make an attempt to look for that something extra special, whether we succeed or not, we are better for it.
My wonderful, fun, funny, prankster younger brother passed away very unexpectedly in January. My sister & I selected the music and giggled when we choose Elvis Presley singing “My Way”. Ted loved Elvis’s music, and the song was just so appropriate. Wouldn’t you know it, Elvis started to sing just as Mother went into the church and approached the casket. You should have seen the shocked look on her 80 year old very proper Southern Baptist face! I do believe I heard Ted laughing. Perfect.
As for having everything, I have NO idea.
“Happiness comes uninvited: and the moment you are conscious that you are happy, you are no longer happy.” —Krishnamurti
“And that’s the truth.” —Edith Ann
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