It's Always About The Adventure

Image via WikipediaLaura: "Greg, I am so sorry. I really meant to marry you. I did. And suddenly, I put on that wedding dress and I thought, 'Here I go, my last great adventure.' And then I realized, I was only 22 and I've hardly had any great adventures."

Greg: "You don't think starting a family is an adventure?"

Laura: "Why, sure it is. It's just not-"

Greg: "Paris."

Laura: "You still finish my sentences."

Greg: "And you are still the prettiest girl I have ever laid eyes on."

Laura: "You need to let me go."

Greg: "When I was 15, I read a story in Boy's Life about climbing Kilimanjaro. And it seemed about as far away as the moon. But I mowed lawns all summer so that I could make the trek. Saved almost three hundred dollars. It wasn't enough by a long shot but I put it in the bank and I swore that someday that money would go towards an adventure."

Laura: "And what did you spend it on?"

Greg: "A ring. But that's not the point.If what you are leaving me for is-"

Laura: "Kilimanjaro"

Greg: "Then Bon Voyage, Laura. Safe journey."

- Pan Am television series: Season 1: Episode 2 "We'll Always Have Paris"

Monogamy is a State of Higher Evolution

Image via Wikipedia

Waverly: "I think what he is trying to say is that monogamy isn't natural. The male species is hard-wired for genetic diversity. So, the instinct is to, ya know, fertilize as many eggs as possible - to have sex."

Smash: "Exactly!"

Waverly: "Yeah, but human beings are different. I mean, civilization is based on the repression of instincts. When we act contrary to out instincts, that's when things get interesting. A lot of people would say that monogamy is a state of higher evolution - with the right person."

- Friday Night Lights Season 1: Episode 10 "It's Different for Girls"

Wedding Rings Have a Weird Power

Felicia: "You guys gonna get married or what?"

Phineas: "Living together's the same thing."

Felicia: "Un-uh. I live with a guy once and trust me, it's not even close to being the same thing."

Phineas: "What do you mean, why?"

Felicia: "'Cause, she can just pack up and leave whenever sh*t hits the fan. Talk to married people. That ring, believe it or not, has got this kind of weird power."

- Sopranos Season 5 episode 9

It Takes Years to Train a Man

“Women tended to get married before they knew themselves, before they’d made contact with their inviolate selves. Another fact: it takes ages, years and years, to train a man to be even moderately sensitive and to equip him with the expertise to carry out ordinary household tasks. By the time all the information has been dispensed and processed, the trainer is worn out.”

Jane Hamilton. Disobedience. Anchor Books. 2000. pg 75.

Two Stories Become One

"Marriage can be a great opportunity to produce such changes. But all too often it is designed to reinforce existing problems. Marriage requires the adaptation of two stories to each other. A rigid story that will not be changed will try to impose itself on the spouse’s story."

- Joseph Gold. Read For Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System. Fitzhenry and Whiteside: Markham, 1990. pg 214

Happy Marriage

Commonplace books used to be a lot more “common,” for lack of a better term. It seems that they have fallen out of popularity. However, many of the famous quotation sites on the Internet are really just digital commonplace books.

In the dictionary a commonplace book is defined as “a book of memorabilia.” Commonplace is defined as “an obvious or trite observation.”

My commonplace book is a collection of thoughts and ideas that I have taken from anywhere I find something meaningful. I will attribute the quote to whoever said it, or the source I took it from whenever possible.

I will try to post an interesting quote or passage that I have collected in my commonplace book here every weekday. My collection is continuing to grow. If you would like to add a quotation that is meaningful to you or one that you would like to share, please post a comment or send me an email. Thanks.

Here is entry # 2

“If you want to have a happy marriage, be the kind of person who generates positive energy and sidesteps negative energy rather than empowering it.” - Barton, Bruce. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Calendar. Sept 2004