Uncommon Nonsense

"Be what you would seem to be, or if you'd like it put more simply: Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise." - The Duchess

As simple as the Duchess can have you believe that is, its not as easy as a lazy stroll on a soft moonlit night either. To seem anything other than what you really seem to be, needs a lot of seeming than is what is normally considered seeming. On the other hand, being what you seem to be seems to be a much more difficult than it would normally be to be what you dont seem to be. We can't have any of that. No way. Not if I had my way, a way which according to a conversation I had earlier today, is not even really mine. Its always someone else's way, but I am digressing.

Getting back, it would seem that being and seeming to be is very much subject to a question of what is normal and what is not. Someone once said to me that normally the collective human mind has an inherent tendency to "normalize". Seems alarmingly abnormal to me. Why should what seems normal to me seem normal to you ? Or vice versa ? Is it normal for two people to have seemingly the same sense of normalcy? If its not, and normality is really something very individualistic, then how does the sense of normalcy in a society develop ? So now we have more questions than answers.

Its really not as difficult as I would have it seem. Its just different. So it would to imagine yourself as being someone you are not, but would like to seem like is a totally different thing than actually being that someone. Just as imagining yourself to be exactly the same way you are, which is to say the very same way you would want to seem to be, is totally different too. Ah, the wonder that is imagination. If it weren't for imagination, Quixote wouldn't have fought the windmills and I wouldn't have had half the conversations I have had with the moon.Most interesting conversations too. Never mind the other half, for I am digressing again. As for clubbing myself with Quixote, well, now that its a done deed, you might as well move on. I should say that would be the most seemingly wise thing to do under the circumstance.

As for me, now that I have had Lewis Carroll disown his grave and move into his mother-in-law's, I shall rest in peace and turn in for the day. Good night and sleep tight!