Normally, that's me. It's a reference to my childhood, to the celestial seasonings tea - which as it turns out, is actually Sleepytime® Herb Tea, but there's a sleepy bear on the front of the tea box, hence the sleepy time bear concept. Plus, we would always have honey from the honey bear, reinforcing the bear-ness. And then there is winnie-the-pooh, yet another honey-associated bear. Nowadays, it is very difficult to get me to drink herbal tea, because I drink things to hydrate, caffeinate, or get tipsy, and herbal tea fits none of those categories. Plus, I often want tea at night and the celestial seasonings boxes kind of freak me out. It's late at night, you're a little out of it, probably a little stressed about work, and you end up reading one of the "inspirational" quotes on the box and begin wondering about all these people who came up with these witty and inspirational quotes and imagine that people who came up with this kind of stuff would be cozy in their beds, getting their 8 hours a night, thinking nice balanced socially-acceptable thoughts. For example, take this quote from celestial seasonings' website:
"Good impulses spring from a happy readiness of spirit." - Balthasar Gracian
Uh-huh. Sure, fair enough. Just, um, who exactly thinks in those terms? It turns out that Gracian was a Jesuit writer. And also, a strategist of sorts, saying also, for example: "It is both useless and insipid to play with the cards on the table." These additional writings put the quote into some context, outside the florid art on the celestial seasonings' box. His writings remind me of a lot of things I've been forced to read over time, things that have left me cold, in the sense that they are completely uninspiring to me, I think of LaRochefoucauld's maxims, which I had to read during one of my tragic undergraduate french classes, which in turn is kind of like reading the Importance of being Earnest, which, don't get me wrong I like Oscar Wilde and all, is irrelevant nonsense with a veneer of great importance. Which I think it the most dangerous thing of all, people and things that believe themselves greatly important, when in fact, they are average and simple. I just think those are the type of people who tend to ruin the world for the rest of us, the ones who think they are smarter and better than everyone else. The smart ones tend to keep quiet and the ones who aren't tend to speak up, and then lead a group of people to disaster and for some reason, the fact that they are talking leads people to believe they are competent. I won't list examples, for fear of retribution, as unrealistic as that is. Living too much in reality is unbearably dull.
Posts
