nice thought, buuuut...

[keryx]

I saw this quote on Tribe.net, and wondered where it came from.
So I went to Google to find out if it's attributable to someone in specific. Far as I can tell, it's not. Moreover, there are hundreds of variants on the telling of the quote - most popularly substituting say, "chocolate box & cigarette", "martini & gun" or rather hokily, "family & god" (kind of changes the tune, doesn't it?) for $VICEOFCHOICE.

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - [$VICEOFCHOICE] in one hand - [$VICEOFCHOICE] in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming: WOO HOO [alt. holy shit/hell/woot!/etc.] what a ride!

It shows up on a jillion different message boards, but no one ever attributes it. I almost thought it was being attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, but that was just its correlation with that "no one can make you feel inferior without your consent" quote.

Anyhow. It's a nice idea. But. I was thinking after the 50th message board link I saw that it has some odd implications in the way it gets used (surprisingly often by dieters to other dieters, for instance). Like the only real pleasures in the world have to be bad for you, maybe? Or that anything is just bad for you, period? I can't really put my finger on it; some sort of annoy-me button is being pushed. [ETA: You know what it is? It's that I wouldn't mind skidding sideways with a bunch of grapes in one hand and a yoga mat in othe other (or some equivalent). And I'm annoyed by the implication that we can't enjoy things that are also "good for us".]

The idea of skidding into the grave sideways still makes me smile.

Comments

[kazoogrrl.livejournal.com]

The annoy me part: That people will take something like this as the license to not take care of themselves. As in, we're all gonna die, so who cares what/who/how I do my life! Which can become pure selfishness.

This reminds me of a Bill Hicks bit, where he starts talking about smoking and then contrasts the lives and deaths of Yul Brenner and Jim Fix: "There's Jim, running around a dewey track at dawn."

[jane-ire.livejournal.com]

Depending on the vice, you could be skidding quite a bit sooner than later. I'm all for taking my time.

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

What if you're just not a "WOOHOO" skidding type of person? That's what annoys me about it. It's very proscriptive of a basic personality trait.

[ddr-ho.livejournal.com]

Um, that life should be fun? Yeah, I'd say that is gearing toward a certain personality trait - happiness.

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

I'd say that you can have fun/be happy playing bridge and sipping chamomile tea, too, but clearly that doesn't get covered in the vice & skidding life proscription. The basic personality trait described isn't happiness, it's a certain lack of moderation or escalation of intensity or what have you. I wouldn't tie that specifically to happiness.

If the distinction you read into it is "action" vs "inaction" then sure. I'm all for a life of action. But that's not what I read into it.

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

"action" for the set of "action" which includes skidding, smoking, playing bridge, or sipping chamomile tea.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhh. I like chamomile tea.

What I don't like (now that I realize it): people using this concept to say that healthy things are a punishment. Grr. Argh.

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

It was just something I thought of as sort of... moderate and not-vice-like. :)

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was speaking more to the use of the quote by people in diet communities & such. So, the message that unhealthy doesn't equal bad is okay, but do we really need more messages that unhealthy equals the only thing that's fun?

I don't think I'd have been annoyed by the quote, basically, if it weren't for the dieters. :)

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

Weird. That seems like it would be counterproductive for use in a diet community? If it's trying to imply that you should do all these supposedly bad things?

And I think from your edit that we were essentially annoyed by the same kind of thing. It all depends on what skidding is a metaphor for. :)

[jane-ire.livejournal.com]

My idea of fun does not involve careening mindlessly toward the grave.

[jane-ire.livejournal.com]

Ha! Agreed.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of more karmic skidding than actual woohoomywildcrazylife skidding, if that's less annoying. :)

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

I think the game of telephone people play with the original quote give it more of a "woohoo" feel than the original HsT quote. However, noting that he wrote it doesn't exactly give me a feeling that it has anything to do with karma. :)

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Yeah, yeah, but I figure, if someone else can make it about family & god, I get to make it about whatever I want, too. :)

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely opposed to what might be the spirit of the quote, as well. End of life issues are very important to me and that's what I want to focus on if I ever get my MSW... :)

[ddr-ho.livejournal.com]

I found it attributed here (http://trailquest.net/BRinspiration.html) to Hunter S. Thompson. Looks like the vices were added by other folks, later.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Aha. Thanks!

[orkid.livejournal.com]

since the quote is used so frequently but unattributed, people are probably getting it from a movie (maybe the fear & loathing movie).

i don't know about skidding sideways into the grave. i think i'd like to ease down into death like i'm getting into a hot bath. but i definitely like skidding sideways down the hallway in my socks. :D

[cutegaychick.livejournal.com]

I just get tired of seeing the damn thing all over the place -- it's gotten tired and cliche for me. However, the first 1,000 times I encountered it, I took it not as an endorsement of recklessness or vice, but rather as a rejection of propriety.

As in:
Yes, I will get muddy, break a nail, muss my hair and get a hole in my new shirt. I will not shun excitement, fun or adventure simply because it wouldn't be proper.

[justbjen.livejournal.com]

I have seen 2 people use this quote consitently in their bios and emails. To me they are using it as an excuse to do whatever the blankity-blank they want to do whithout care to the consequences or how they treat others.

[cutegaychick.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you could suggest that they should instead "live fast, die young and leave a good-looking corpse."

[justbjen.livejournal.com]

Hey James Dean quotes are cool :)

[cutegaychick.livejournal.com]

That was always my goal in life. Somehow I missed the dying young part. Tried my damndest though. Now I'm more going for "die old and leave a fat 401K."

[justbjen.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a very good idea to me.

[luguvalium.livejournal.com]

or Live fast, love hard, die young

[pictsy.livejournal.com]

I see a lot of peope attribute it to Mavis Leyrer, with "champagne" and "strawberries," but it's possible that she was paraphrasing from someone else.

The annoying thing about the quote is that it implies that those who indulge will necessarily make themselves unattractive and ill-preserved by doing so. It's like saying, "Go ahead and enjoy the food--wouldn't you rather be fat and happy than attractive and hungry?" And that's just obnoxious.

[justbjen.livejournal.com]

What I really want to know is why some people think that if you live a good life by being kind and truthful to those around you, take care of yourself and others that it cannot be a fun ,full, happy life?