Such is Life
Ned Kelly occupies a strange place in Australian history. To some, he represents freedom at its finest - a man took the law into his own hands and fought back (futilely) against a legal system that fed the rich from the work of the poor. To others, he was nothing more than a thug who grew up in the nascent criminal system and got what he deserved. Either way, one thing is undisputed: on November 11, 1880, Ned Kelly was put to justice.
Like with all great outlaws, or maybe outlaw stories, Ned Kelly's story has had a lasting impact on the English language: legend has it that Ned's last words, as the noose went around his neck, were, "such is life." (Of course, actual history takes issue with that, instead stating that Ned's last words were, "Oh well. It's come to this." Depending, of course, on who you read.)
But I've been thinking about such is life in terms of the new year and goals and resolutions; I've been thinking about derailment and how forces outside our control can knock our plans off the metaphorical tracks before they've even begun to gain steam. And about how we often cannot clearly see what is a real obstacle and what is just an excuse finding an acceptable disguise.
Here's an example: Jerry Seinfeld famously said that when he was starting out, he would write jokes every day, and every day that he wrote jokes, he'd put a big X on a calendar. Eventually, this string of Xs would be so long that the thought of breaking them was horrifying and he would do everything he could to not miss being able to make an X on the calendar. Which, as a method of goal-setting and achieving, is great! Assuming life doesn't have any other plans for you.
I've been fortunate in that I have had no outside impedance to me achieving any of my goals. No, my obstacles are all internal and all of my own devising. I have lots of excuses for why I don't get anything done, but they mostly boil down to fear and I've written plenty about all that before, so, moving on: the trouble I have with things like Seinfeld's Xs is that it doesn't allow for randomness or chaos or even maliciousness on the part of others, and the effects can be devastating.
I write this newsletter (and just about everything else) on a site called 750 Words. It's a fantastic site and one I highly recommend. One of the major draws of the site is that it gives you an X for every day you write over 750 words. Write less and you get a /. Write nothing at all and you get nothing. It makes sense, it works well, and best of all, it's free! However. Several years ago, I had gotten two years of Xs in a row. A full 730 days and then some. During an accident of timing and internet access, I missed a day of updating because of international traveling. I was so down after that I ended up not writing anything on the site (or at all) for the better part of three months. It took hearing someone actually say, "such is life" for me to get back to writing.
So, as I've been setting my goals for the year and dealing with the internal excuses and occasional (tiny) external challenges and obstacles, I've tried to be more accepting of not being able to do things daily and to instead be mindful of getting back to things when and if I can. More practically, I've gone to putting Xs on a weekly basis instead of a daily one and I feel much more sanguine about my progress that way.
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This week's essay is a little disjointed; I have very obviously tried to shoehorn an Australian connection to the topic I had planned to write about, so I hope you'll forgive the attempt. However, Australia is in dire straits at the moment and could use all the help we can give, so, if you have a mind to, here is a charity I have contributed to and that I recommend: Australian Conservation Foundation. Thanks.
Definitions:
used to refer to an event that has happened and that you must accept, because you know that this is the way life is
Origins:
Frederick Ludowy, writing in OzWords Vol. 18, No. 1, 2009:
The term such is life is first recorded in Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend (1865)—‘With a mournful air as who should say, “Here is another wretched creature come to dinner; such is life!”’
Notable Events of 1880:
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Thinking Hard
Just a few weeks ago, I wrote about an episode of Tim Hartford’s Cautionary Tales that I enjoyed so much it prompted me to actively change my music listening habits. A separate aspect of the same episode I enjoyed was its brief discussion of Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies. (I also wrote about these same cards way back in Learned Vol. 1, Issue 15: Neon.)
For those unaware, Eno’s Oblique Strategies are a deck of cards with small ideas for creative problem solving written on them. To use them, you pull a card at random and apply its advice to the problem at hand. Some people love them, some people hate them, some people have turned them into a cottage industry.
For myself, I find the nascent genre of brainstorming, conversation starters, and general creativity boosters fascinating. I regularly use Word Teasers and Rory’s Story Cubes in my classes and the Writer’s Emergency Pack for my writing work. I’m even hard at work developing decks of my own for my students.
So, I’m curious, do you use any creativity aids like the ones mentioned here? If so, drop me a line and let me know which ones you use and how you like them so far. Cheers!
Next time: Three sheets to the wind. That's it. Stay strong, stay curious. Learn something.