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Monday, January 09, 2017

Repeating myself


I feel like I have told all of my stories. Some of them one too many times. I've even written about repeating myself several times and waxed less than poetically about my theories of why we repeat ourselves so much as we age.  And I find repeating myself terribly annoying.

Yet I do it.

It is disturbing when I catch myself repeating myself. It is even more annoying when someone else brings it to my attention. It happens at work. I'll be pontificating to one of my staff and they'll fill in the ending of what I'm ranting about. Because I've said it to them before.

Then I panic. Because it means I've become one of those people. The ones who are pompous bores that repeat themselves because they don't have anything original to say. It also means I've become unaware. And one thing I've always clung to throughout my life is that I take great pains to be aware of everyone of my faults. I like to beat people to the punch when it comes to pointing out my deficiencies.

I'd like to think that I also tried to correct my faults when I become aware of them. I don't really like to be annoying. And nothing is more annoying than little things like repeating ones self.

Well making grunting sounds for no reason is pretty annoying.  Or sucking your teeth. Muttering to yourself is annoying, too.

Pause for lugubrious howl.


I suppose repetition has its place in life. It is often how we learn things. And we repeat some things because we like them so much (like listening to the same song on repeat, re-watching a movie, re-reading a book or eating the same thing for weeks on end). But it is the repetition of things we like that eventually makes us dislike them. Which is one of my theories about why I have very few people who read my blog on a regular basis (another topic I repeat repeatedly).

Actors are people who seem to get stuck in repetitious roles. A perfect example is the movie Blackway starring Ray Liotta, Anthony Hopkins, Julia Stiles and Alexander Ludwig. Hal Holbrook also has a minor role. As I watched this painfully predictable movie on Showtime,  I noted that Ray Liotta was playing a sociopath which is pretty much every role he plays. Anthony Hopkins was playing a good guy version of Hannibal Lector. Julia Stiles was playing Julia Stiles. Alexander Ludwig, (who I only recognize from his role in Vikings) plays a pretty decent Lenny from Of Mice and Men. Oh, and Hal Holbrook simply reprises his one man stage show version of Mark Twain.

Come to think of it, every movie script, television plot and novel is basically a rehashing of stories that have been with us since the beginning of time. And actors simply repeat that part of themselves they get the best response from until everyone is sick of them (i.e. Jim Carey).

So I guess I can forgive myself for repeating myself in a blog read by very few people who would recognize the repetition. After all, I repeat, therefore I am.

2 comments:

Helen Baggott said...

Sorry, can you say that again?

Time said...

Lugubrious howl.