Just heard this on WAMC, our local public radio station, during an interview with Amitava Kumar, (English professor at Bard College) who I saw live, interviewing Jenny Offill last month at Murray's in Tivoli. I love this thought, which he paraphrased and credited to Philip Roth; here it is straight from the source:
“You get them wrong before you meet them, while you're anticipating meeting them; you get them wrong while you're with them; and then you go home to tell somebody else about the meeting and you get them all wrong again. Since the same generally goes for them with you, the whole thing is really a dazzling illusion. ... The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It's getting them wrong that is living, getting them wrong and wrong and wrong and then, on careful reconsideration, getting them wrong again. That's how we know we're alive: we're wrong. Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that -- well, lucky you.”
Philip Roth
Maybe I love this quotation because if reinforces this thought I always tell my kids: Being right is no fun; being wrong is where all the action is, 'cause that's where there's an opportunity for learning. But maybe I'm wrong about THAT?!! One thing for certain: the older I get the more I know that I don't know. It's such a sweet liberation.
Maybe I love this quotation because if reinforces this thought I always tell my kids: Being right is no fun; being wrong is where all the action is, 'cause that's where there's an opportunity for learning. But maybe I'm wrong about THAT?!! One thing for certain: the older I get the more I know that I don't know. It's such a sweet liberation.
