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great
January 2010 
What does greatness mean to you?
Posted on Aug 14th, 2009
by 
sandi
sandi
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for August 14, 2009:
Greatness is in danger of being brought down to the humanized version of "Awesome". In lieu of searching our vocabularies for the appropriate words, we hit on the first or second over-used word being thrown about today, with little regard for the true or actual meaning. In today's culture, the word awesome has been used to describe any and everything, from a trip to the mall to a nice piece of toast, rendering it almost useless. It is a tiger gone toothless. Greatness still has a spark of validity remaining despite overuse in the day-to-day world. For instance, who is Alexander, the Okay? Or where are the Medium Pyrenees? Or scanning the night sky, do you find yourself searching for the Alright Bear and the Little Bear? Denali and Mount McKinley are great. Churchill was great. The Great Lakes are great. The Sphinx and the Pyramid of Cheops are great. The Great Wall of China is great. Now, that I've committed the great sin of stating the obvious, let me add that Hershey bars are great. When some one or something transcends the everyday, and finds a place forever in the minds and memories of Man, you can give the accolade of greatness with confidence that it will be recognized by all. However, being a child of the times, I will once again go out to have a Great Day and I hope you'll do the Same.
Access: Public
“It is a tiger gone toothless.” Sandi, you hit it out of the park with that statement!
Don't forget Tony the tiger!
i want to be “stacy, the okay”
that sounds awesome!! :-D
Gabby, you know, I can't think if that old beastie has any teeth or not.
Hi, Stacy, sweetie, you just be who ever you want to be. I want to be “Sandi, The Jam-maker” today and I am!
I just arrived at HolEssence and today I will be Laurie, the Energy Worker (and loving every minute of it) …
In India, we find these wise words from Hitopdesha:
“Greatness does not approach him who is forever looking down.”
I am also tempted to add these words by Elbert Green Hubbard:
”The man who is anybody and who does anything is surely going to be criticized, vilified, and misunderstood. This is a part of the penalty for greatness, and every great man understands it; and understands, too, that it is no proof of greatness. The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure contumely without resentment.”
sandi – I really like your attitude toward that which is “great” – it reminds me of “exceptional without trying to be” – people, events, things, etc., are great by virtue of their being, that moment of existence in which they become exceptional to even their own normalcy.
Hi, Laurie, poor old Tiger, gumming Frosted Flakes like Tony. It is a shame though to hear such words, the words themselves, run into the ground and shopworn after being misused so many times. Every instance of hearing “Awesome!” applied to some mundane item like a pair of jeans, causes me to cringe. When you use up your supply of superlatives on the ordinary, where are the words to invoke the extraordinary? Let's see you get out there today and work that energy, and manifest the greatest good for the greatest number! Hows that for slipping in the word in question?
Dear Bhatta, A multitude of great thinkers originated in India, more than I will ever be able to know. Thankfully, you are of a mind to share some of these thoughts with us and I am doubly blessed, to receive the messages you share and the fact that I even am honored by your presence in my life. Thank you, good friend for your words and wisdom, and of course, your visit!
Thank you, Barbara. I think you are right in that greatness is achieved by simply being—-great. Only in humans do you see striving and planning for greatness. A redwood tree is great by being a what it is. Humongous and terribly old, it does strike awe into the hearts of us Two-leggers. The Matterhorn is great because of its unique presence in the Alps and the challenge it presents to climbers. Wonderful phrase, ” Exceptional with out trying to be.” Thanks for bringing that to my mind to today.
You're absoutely right Sandi - our media driven culture demands hyperbole when it's undeserved. Superlatives are loosing their meaning because of the fact that they're so overused. Your friend Bhatta touched on something that I think is true - people who believe the hype can't truly be great. Depending on feeling that they are above the crowd sets them up for a metaphorical fall. And I think that we have all been in that position in some small degree or another - the moment I think I've done something to show those Joneses, life has a way of kicking that self-placed pedistal out from under me. I love Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion, and he said something on a PBS profile that I immediately had to copy down: “I was afraid of living an ordinary life until I realized that's what we all get - an ordinary life. And it's alright. It's good enough.”
This is interesting. I don't buy into the Awesome, post-modern culture at all…but I don't think anything is great. You seem to equate it with reverence, which is interesting and correct. When you are in awe of something, it becomes great to you…from the mountains to a chocolate bar. I've never seen the point in being in awe of anything, but I'm weird in that I don't need to be in awe of things to see them as worthy of my respect and even my devotion. I suppose it's why I don't consider myself post-modern…I do see the point of being respectful towards things, even if I don't see the point in erecting pedestals.
Hi, Bethany, thank you for stopping by and reminding me that Garrison Keller is one of the best home-grown philosophers we have on hand the days. He' not Mark Twain or Will Rogers, but he is damn good and on the money. Hey, there have been days when I've prayed just to let me have an ordinary life and there would be no more problems out of me. Now that I have one, just getting up in the morning is an adventure to me. What others might find boring, I find restful and fruitful, and suits me down to the ground at this stage in my life.
Hi, Danese, I'm glad you could pay me a visit. I do feel sad that you feel no greatness in your life so far. Hey, the days not over yet, any thing could happen. The thing that saddens me is that there is so much over-blown media hype and visual imagery of fantastic situations, that true, real life pales in comparison. My generation was impressed as all get out by a man walking on the moon. Today you have time warps, black holes, Independence Day and who knows what all out there. It's hard to compete with Fantasy, I understand that this is not what you're saying, but none the less, it is true. We were easily impressed, your generation has already seen it all, heard it all, and discounted it all. Well, you can't put the horse back in the barn, What do you do now?
Sandi, Gabriel, Stacy, Bhatta, Barbara, Bethanie and Jaleesa -
We listen to Prairie Home Companion on National Public Radio when we can. Garrison Keillor has a wonderful way of delivering his thoughts.
In addition to the words “awesome” and “great” … I think another word that is often used out of context and has subsequently become de-valued is the word “love.”
What do you think?
Hey Sandi, yea I agree with the over use it makes real life seem a bore a place people do not want to meet each other in anymore. It is sad, just sad. I know it all so well from personal experience, how the sight if not on greatness to become awesome you have somehow failed. If you do not make a name for yourself or are not in constant pursuit of a place to put your statue you are not heading in the correct directon.
Creating for oursleves an unattainable and thus self punishing exsitence. It is as if you no longer can do your best, but only to be better. So worried we have become to be the noise of a tree that we think falls silently in the woods that we miss the greatness of the quite forest that we all play are part of.
Thanks
when we listen to the greater…we don't have to worry about what is great, and what is small…
Laurie, you are so on top of that, the word love has become dry and as common place as sand. It no longer holds water and has no cohesiveness. With out bonding it drops into a shapeless pile, ( Fine for cats ) holding no meaning. Thanks for bringing that up, I don't know that I would have had the courage to do it myself.
Thank you , JM, as always I value your comments and opinions. Okay, what if, taking a wild hair, we just down-sized some of our most “awesome” achievements to date, say the latest Mega-Burger being deifyed on every possible space. It is just a big burger. Like Steve Martin says, ” Let's get small!”
Yo, le beau! After all, in comparison, there is no comparison.
Yea small it is, lets even super size it.
=}
Son! Do you know what a hickory is? I'm not so old that I can't switch one back and forth. Although I had more practice at running from one than using one.
nice sandi …AWESOME :-)
Cute, starpeople. Laurie, I completely agree that the word “love” has been overused. I'm guilty of it myself - I “love” chocolate, I “love” art, I “love” doing this or that. Which has nothing to do with that down to your toes feeling of deep abiding love you can share with another human being. One of my r/l friends doesn't much care for Jane Austen (sacrilige!) because she finds the language verbose. But I feel that those 200-year-old words are more expressive of degrees of feeling than we oftentimes find ourselves using in our world.
Bethanie - your friend doesn't much care for Jane Austen? Well of all the nerve! I would agree that we have lost some of our ability to express degrees of feeling. Some of the degrees of expression … period. Here's an example:
My almost 26 year old son was over for dinner the other night and I kept adding finger counts to my hand, then hands. When I started over again he asked, “Mom, what in the world are you doing?” I said, “I'm counting the number of times you've said 'whatever' and you're up to seventeen.” He couldn't believe it. When he continued on with his story, he grinned, then laughed, every time he would have interjected a 'whatever.' He said, “You got me there. I didn't realize the habit I'd gotten into.”
Hey there, Tony, nice of you to drop by, um, ….were, you talking about toast? I have jam. God in his mercy gave me three little girls, I would have gone over the wall with little boys, little girls are a bit calmer, I don't know. the thing of it is, I've never used a hickory on them. or anything else for that matter. I remember growing up and having to go and pick the switch that would be used. My girls got off light, and so did I.
Hi, Bethany, Hi, Laurie, I really love reading the older, classic novels. Maybe female writers really felt like they had to prove something, they were quite the scandal in their day from what I hear. I have to admit that Edith Wharton used to hold me spell-bound with her tales at the 1st. part of the century. All that gossip and moralizing! But another word-smithtress comes to mind and there will never be another like her, Dorothy Parker. My Heroine of the Words.
I stand guilty as your son on the charge of whatever. I try to never say it out loud, I think I picked it up from some awful valley girls. I have updated my hair though. This is for every one that stopped by today, because I can't do something and not get on the rooftop about it…..I picked two gallons of figs this morning and after a long , long time in the kitchen, I have 7 pints and 9 half-pints of fig preserves. There it's out. I can rest now. Y'all have a good night.
Sandi -
You did all of those preserves, AND you did it with updated hair. That's pretty darned slick!
I have had the same exact haircut since I was seven - and that is the truth. I looked like Peter Pan then; I look like Peter Pan now; and I'm sure I'll draw my last breath looking the same way.
Now if I could just use some of Peter Pan's magic to whip out some preserves …
So, what ever happened to, 'what the world needs now is love. sweet love'.
Have jam.