Before I start, let me preface that this is my first blog post using MacJournal from Mariner Software. If this post looks a little odd, please bear with me as I get familiar with the software and the process.
Today a friend who publishes the “The Jack London Villager” shared the following quotation with me:
“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” -- Jack London
There are lots of quotations like this and I can’t help wonder if London might have had some influence on Neil Young writing “It's better to burn out / Than to fade away” in My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) from the album Rust Never Sleeps. I doubt London meant it in the same way but I like to think there is some connection in the underlying sentiment.
Many years ago, in my youth, I learned a quotation which has become a motto which influences my decision making: “A ship in the harbor is safe but that’s not why they build ships.” Perhaps that is why London’s prose and Young’s lyrics resonate with me and, as discussed in the previous post, “Freedom vs. Security”, why I identify more with the quest for freedom than security.
Today a friend who publishes the “The Jack London Villager” shared the following quotation with me:
“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” -- Jack London
There are lots of quotations like this and I can’t help wonder if London might have had some influence on Neil Young writing “It's better to burn out / Than to fade away” in My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) from the album Rust Never Sleeps. I doubt London meant it in the same way but I like to think there is some connection in the underlying sentiment.
Many years ago, in my youth, I learned a quotation which has become a motto which influences my decision making: “A ship in the harbor is safe but that’s not why they build ships.” Perhaps that is why London’s prose and Young’s lyrics resonate with me and, as discussed in the previous post, “Freedom vs. Security”, why I identify more with the quest for freedom than security.
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