Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Fake It Till You Make it?

I have not posted for a while. I know. Got e-mails enquiring why the long silence. Partly because I was reading Henry David Thoreau. He said this that got me thinking. "How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live". - Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862) .
I really do not know the context in which this was stated, but taking it as it stands, it is quite self explanatory. If you want to write on something, make sure you have lived the experience. If that is true, than, I should stop writing. On the contrary, I do agree with Thoreau but not to the full extent of what he said. Thoreau, being a Transcendentalist, emotion rules rather than reason. One cannot write with the head void of emotion. That is vanity.
Yet there is also the other side of the coin. The self-fulfilling prophecy. You do and do and do or say and say and say until you believe in it till it comes true. In other words, 'Fake it till you make it'. First we have to believe in ourselves and make the decision to do it. Then we go out and do it. And make lots of mistakes in the process. Though I like Thoreau and his works, I must say I have some reservations on his quote on 'How vain it is to write when you have not stood up to live'. I do sometimes subscribe to the philosophies of Transcendentalism, but I believe in emotion With reason as oppose to emotion rather than reason.
OK enough with Thoreau. I was silent for a while because it has been one busy month. Major decisions to make. Travelling. Holidaying. In the process, have encountered many experiences, people and events that have somewhat shaped my thinking a bit. And yes, I'm back!

8 comments:

Shanghai Fish said...

ahhhh....SUP ...there is hope yet ! as there is a light at the end of the tunnel !
Welcome back. How come your shout box is out of order ??

J.T. said...

Welcome back! So happy to see another post from you.

You wrote: "If you want to write on something, make sure you have lived the experience. If that is true, than, I should stop writing.

But aren't you writing based on what you have lived already? You are writing based on your experiences, as I see it.

As I read further, I have to admit that this is too deep for me to think about it at this hour (11:30pm). However, you have a point that if one makes a decision to "fake it till you make it", one better do it right or one is only faking oneself. hmmm.. am I making any sense? :)

tony -stand-up philosopher said...

Hi JT,
Just relating what I read. Thoreau is deep in his philosophies. Too deep to grasp at one go. But I'm glad I ran into him.
Nice of you to drop by again.

Anonymous said...

Oh you are back! Welcome home my friend

tony -stand-up philosopher said...

Hi Elviza,
Thanks for dropping by. Yes its nice to be back. Will we catch up at MRT again? Soon I hope.
Take care.

Daphne Ling said...

Welcome back Tony,

"How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live". - Henry David Thoreau

Cool...

But you know what? I think we are all doing that...We share stories and snippets of our life on our blogs...Through our posts, our readers (who eventually become friends) learn more about us, as we them...

And really, what stories are we sharing?

About our triumphs, our defeats, our heartaches, our headaches, our bothers, our irks and our experiences and lessons learnt...

So isn't that standing up and living, and sitting down later to write about them?

*Smiles*

Welcome back Tony, whatever it is, and keep sharing!

eva's haven said...

How nice to see youre back, Anthonio.
(By the way, Indira is spelt Indira, not Indria)

You know, all those little quotes uttered by very famous and eminent people, are to inspire us.
But of course, if they're too literal and too unreasonable, just be inspired by its figurative meaning.
However, don't stop searching for that inner self fulfilment.

Ciao, mon ami.

tony -stand-up philosopher said...

Hi Daphne,
Your blog, and a few others, they inspire me. To a certain extent, you walk the talk.
Thanks form droping by. Always nice to hear from you.

Hi Eva,
As always,spot on. Thanks for highlighting the 'Indria' error. As for quotes, its who is quoting that matters. Most times, famous people quote as of their experiences. Their lives are already an inspiration. Their quotes are the fuel for motivation. Thanks for your thoughts.