I Double-Dog-Dare Ya!

There's an unforgettable episode in the classic movie A Christmas Story, by the author and humorist Jean Shepherd, about his Indiana boyhood in the 1930s. In the scene, one friend (Schwartz) dares another (Flick) to stick his tongue onto the school flagpole on a freezing winter day. Flick is hesitant to take the dare until Schwartz ups the ante by calling out "I double-dog-dare ya!"  As the narrator says, "Now it was serious -- a double-dog-dare."

Here's the riveting movie scene with the childhood pals and the icy flagpole:

Well, thank goodness, nobody is double-dog-daring me to stick my tongue onto an icy flagpole!  But there have certainly been instances in my life when I've really had to convince myself to keep going. In 1995, a year after I lost my husband of 25 years to cancer, I knew it was time to move and build a new life. But that prospect was so daunting, the task of rebuilding seemed so enormous -- someone compared starting a new life after a long marriage to attempting to turn a huge ocean liner around by yourself --  I had to double-dog-dare myself that I could actually do it.

Another example from that same time is, I very much wanted to be in a happy, stable marriage again. I  dated for several years, but nobody I met was within light-years of being "right" for me. I had to double-dog-dare myself to keep going -- and eventually I did meet the right person.

A few years ago, the scarcity of full-time jobs in my field forced me to double-dog-dare myself to "reinvent" myself professionally. I dug deep and thought about what I am best at, and who I really want to work with.  The upshot is, I work with individual authors, copyediting their book manuscripts, and I love it.

How about you?  Are you having to "double-dog-dare" yourself to keep going in some seemingly impossible situation? If you are, take heart from this quote from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland:

 "There is no use trying," said Alice. "One can't believe impossible things."

 "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Linda Jay Geldens, www.LindaJayGeldens.com
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Comments

[Linda Jay Geldens]

Thanks, Ellen. I meant every word.

[Ellen Spencer]

I love this!!! Thank You!!
Much Love and Spirit
Ellen

www.ellenspencer.com
amd
www.ellenspencerprints.com