For Part One, Part Two, or Part Four, click on that link!
Have you ever just looked at a project and sighed? Too big.
That's what I did, looking at today's sort-of quote from Elder A. Theodore Tuttle's talk, "The Things that Matter Most".
The Quote Rephrased
"Someone rephrased this thought: “Too often we are involved in the thick of thin things.”"
Haven't you heard that thought your entire life? I know I have, but honestly, I have no idea where to even start with this one.
So in the spirit of the talk itself, I decided instead to find similar quotes throughout history, hopefully from the right people. And that was useful, I thought.
Presenting the Historical Parade of Similar Quotes
The first one I found came from Stephen R. Covey, who probably said it after this talk came out. It was similar, but he wasn't the first to come out with it.
"“We spend most of our time
in the thick of thin things.”
- from Chapter 3 of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
A very good book, one that I've read many times. He talks in the habit of Putting First Things First about how we often prioritize activities that in the long run don't really matter much to creating a good life.
"...I foresee, that, if my wants should be much increased,
the labor required to supply them
would become a drudgery.
If I should sell both my forenoons and afternoons
to society, as most appear to do,
I am sure, that for me there would be nothing left worth living for.
I trust that I shall never thus sell my birthright
for a mess of pottage.
I wish to suggest that a man may be very industrious,
and yet not spend his time well.
- Henry David Thoreau, from the essay "Life Without Principle" (1854)
Thoreau put a lot of emphasis on how living slow could be living well, as his book 'Walden' attests, and how some activities are more important to our well being than others. Most interesting to me is how he references the biblical story of Esau, who sold his priesthood birthright to his brother Jacob for some food (a mess of pottage) because he was hungry after hunting, and didn't care about his birthright until it was gone.
This last one's a little longer - hang in there with me...
For the rest...
he deals much in the feeling of Wonder;
insists on the necessity and high worth of universal Wonder;
which he holds to be the only reasonable temper
for the denizen of so singular a Planet as ours.
"Wonder," says he, "
is the basis of Worship:
the reign of wonder is perennial, indestructible in Man;
...That progress of Science,
which is to destroy Wonder,
and in its stead substitute Mensuration and Numeration,
finds small favor with T...,
much as he otherwise venerates these two latter processes.
"Shall your Science," exclaims he,
"proceed in the small chink-lighted, or even oil-lighted, underground workshop of Logic alone;
and man's mind become an Arithmetical Mill,
whereof Memory is the Hopper,
and mere Tables of Sines and Tangents,
Codification, and Treatises...?
... I mean that Thought without Reverence is barren, perhaps poisonous;
at best, dies like cookery with the day that called it forth;
does not live, like sowing,
in successive tilths and wider-spreading harvests,
bringing food and plenteous increase to all Time."
- Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus
In case you missed some of that, let me sum up.
Thomas Carlyle compares living in wonder on this planet to living only in logic, facts and figures, which are certainly important, but no so important as to allow ourselves to be consumed in them. Reverence and worship and wonder are important to a full life, and should not be devalued because they don't make money or bring us power.
Or something like that.
Stay in the thick of thick things today, my friends. :-)
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