QotD: Words to Live By

What is your personal motto?

Sean says...

I have two self-written mottoes about life now at 37 years old...

1. Determination means never asking how far one has to walk to get somewhere.

This motto came about when I was standing at the top of Yellowstone Canyon in Yellowstone National Park in 1999. A woman in her 70s came up to me and asked if you could somehow get to the bottom of the canyon... because you know I look like a park ranger in shorts and a T-shirt (smirk). I did have an answer for her though!  You could walk down a few trails into the canyon but you could not hike into the bottom because of park rules. The woman looked at me and said (and I will never forget this), "You mean you have to walk there? Nevermind. Thanks!" I swore from that day forth I would walk as long as I had workable legs anyplace I went to see and try and see a lot in this world before that happened. Well that incident and the fact someone used the word "determined" in describing me as a criticism. hehehe

2. To be curious is to live life asking "why" with a mischievous grin.

This motto is credited to my Mom somewhat. She always had us going to see things or looking up stuff as research. She read the whole Encyclopedia Britannica once we bought it once. But the one moment that sticks in my mind the most was one drive home from school was interrupted with a quick pull to the side of the road and a short walk through the woods in our Catholic school uniforms to a rotten log to see slim mold in person. She smiled broadly and called it by its scientific name. "Myxomycetes!" she screamed with a smirk on her face. We all rolled our eyes and slinked back to the car as she skipped like a happy child. To this day my sisters and I still talk about that moment as the germination of our curiosity about all things later in life... and then we giggle. Myxomycetes is usually mentioned often in stereo at least once when we three get together. Curiosity will never kill this cat.

However, the "evil" dark inside of me still harbors the following line from Alice Roosevelt Longworth, which is most famous as a quote from one of the best chick flicks ever Steel Magnolias:

If you can't say anything good about someone, sit right here by me.

And people still do. (twinkle in eye)