[JilmberlyB]

please tell me what these mean.

a)No matter how nice the company one might be with, however, it is never pleasant to have a rifle pointed at ones back.

b) In order for people to be happy, sometimes they have to take risks. It's true these risks can put them in danger of being hurt.

c)You're not a hundred dollar bill, not everyone is going to like you.

d)Write the kind of story you would like to read. People will give you all sorts of advice about writing, but if you are not writing something you like, no one else will like it either.

e) Courage is not the absence of fear but the judgment that something else is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all. For now you are traveling the road between who you think you are and who you can be.?

[mpeter2314]

You have some fun ones here that have been paraphrased by many speakers.

a) First - are you sure there is a "however" in this quote? as however usually is followed by a concession, which is not the case here. Anyway, re-read it to yourself without the "however" and it may become more clear: This quote has the delightful attitude of manners correction. Consider it this way: "you're very nice but please stop pointing that gun at me". It has humor in that it links together two unexpected and incompatible actions in a single unit (nice company and threat of violence. This is unexpected, hence, it has humor. And lastly both the "niceness" and the "threat" can refer to other (nice or threatening) things than people being pleasant to be around or literally a rifle. For example: "I really like you but no one enjoys being forced into something".

b) The second sentence in this is redundant (repetitive); try reading just the first sentence. This is a contrary assumption. If one assumes that to be happy they must be perfectly safe, then risking that safety would imply that they would not be happy. But people don't always function on such a linear simplistic logic. Our very humanity is based on extending ourselves outside of our interior worlds (we move, we build, we interact, etc.), which means we are influenced, which means change, which implies risk, which is inherently dangerous - and exciting and wonderful. So, therefore, for people to be happy, sometimes they may risk being unhappy, why? Because the potential of greater pleasure outweighs the danger of suffering because one took a chance. Hence the popularity of the poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson: "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all". Believe me, 'tis worth the risk.

c. I laughed right out loud. Everybody has use for money, particularly BIG money: either to use or donate - so that's EVERYbody. But this comment is a dressing down (a put down). A person is not a facilitation of commerce, but a whole world of good and bad and indifferent. What the speaker is saying is, you're not guaranteed hot in every situation and not everyone is going to think you're so great.

d. Be yourself. Speak in your own voice. Tell your own story (or your own outlook or your own opinion). The whole idea here is that you put something you like, something of yourself into the work. Literally it states that if you don't like it, no one else will. But what it means is, if you don't care about what you are doing, why should anyone else. You have opinions, you do care, so think about the questions and write your own thoughts.

e. This is the best and a very important idea to understand. Everyone knows what fear is, but few understand what courage is. Courage does NOT mean that the person is without fear, quite the contrary. The person is afraid, they may even be terrified. But a choice is made: something is more important, more pressing, a greater impetus (a greater push) than the fear itself. A person is afraid of public speaking or to start a new job or to look for one, but they must feed their family - the need to care for them is more important than their sense of trepidation, so they move forward. Warriors must confront enemy combatants, they love their families, they don't 'want to be in harm's way - but they don't want their families to be either (or they don't want their kids to have this fight) and they don't want their battle buddies to have to do the job alone. That becomes more important than the fear in their gut, and they move forward.

All people have fear. EVERY person has fear. It is where one puts their courage that counts. No kidding. IF nothing is more important than that sense of being inadequate, then a person has not experience success, joy, great highs, great lows in life - they have not "lived". And so sweet is this fear, it is your friend and will keep you safer than any avoidance as it will always tell you when a choice needs to be made. It will say, "what is important here?" Gives you the opportunity to choose your action, to move beyond fear with courage.

Adversity means hardship, problems: real misfortune. In the play, "As You Like It" Shakespeare writes:
Sweet are the uses of adveristy,
which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
wears yet a precious jewel in his head...

That choice of something more important than one's fear, that call to action that is more important than cowering with a sense of inadequacy, THAT courage to move forward, is the jewel in his head, and the key to "living" and being the great person you were meant to be. You were courageous, you spoke up, you asked... now go, and do.