<div style="text-align: center;">BEDiM 2013 : DAY 4</div>

May 4, 2013 Jak Cryton

(A Blog Every Day in May 2013 Challenge Entry)

I am really going to enjoy the challenge on the docket today!

Today’s prompt:

Day 4, Saturday: F avorite quote (from a person, from a book, etc) and why you love it.

I love me some QUOTES ! So this is definitely a prompt I can get behind with few worries. There are so many to choose from, though. You think this would present me with some sort of challenge but...

This was actually an easy pick. Despite having already done a blog post on quotes, I seem to have left out one of my most favorites (and one I use often). So I will share it today. I’m sure a good many of you will remember/recognize it.

“Get busy living or get busy dying.” - Andy Dufresne/Stephen King ( The Shawshank Redemption )

This is my one of my all-time favorite movies. It’s one I can watch over and over again. If it would happen to be on TV while flipping channels (if I had a TV I could watch on), I’d stop and watch it, regardless of whatever part of the movie is on. I love it!

If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. It’s an adaptation (by Frank Darabont, who rocks and keeps close to written material) of Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. I also really enjoyed the novella. While some characters (mainly wardens) were blended for sake of the movie, and some actor choices for characters that didn’t seem to match story descriptions (this is always an issue with movie adaptations, though), the movie stayed relatively close to the story.

I love the quote itself, because I feel it’s just simply fitting for life. Period. I’ve repeated this quote many times over the years, randomly like most things I do. Sometimes, though, I actually contemplate it. Get busy living or get busy dying. It really is as simple a choice as that. The reason it’s profound for me, and sticks with me all this time (aside from loving the novella/movie) is that I feel I keep making the wrong choice. Or at least the option I want to avoid: get busy dying.

I feel like I’ve not really done all I could to really live and feel I am missing out on many of the experiences life has to offer. Traveling for one, learning random knowledge, just exploring the world (and all the things) in general. I kind of shack up in my own little bubble. Like the inmates of The Shawshank Redemption , I feel institutionalized (my original A to Z “I” topic). That I wouldn’t survive out there in the real world. so I remain in my own little prison cell.

I get out a lot more, mind you, but definitely still feel confined/restrained. It feels like I’m waiting for that burst within. Something that will break open the door that is already bulging in its frame, allowing me to fully embrace the world and anything/everything in it. I feel so close at times, but then I just push it away and rationalize that I am safer this way. No way of getting “hurt” in my bubble!

So sometimes the above statement/quote really gets to me. Slowly it tries to get under my skin where it hopes to make its way into my veins and bones, overtake my body completely, and spring me into action. Let’s hope it succeeds at some point, before it is too late.