March Forth, It's March Fourth!

 

Next to Christmas, New Year's Eve, Thanksgiving, Easter, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Mothers' Day, and Birthdays, I really love celebrating March Fourth!  It's a lonely festival, usually attended by me alone.  So, I'm on a mission to get you as excited as I am.  It is the only day of the year, that when spoken aloud in English, is a declaration for action. March forth! Go for it!

Some of us create a vision for ourselves on the eve of the New Year, or with sober second thought, the next morning. Others do this on their birthday.  There are even those who mix tax time with taking stock of their lives.  March 4th is good for me.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." These words are part of a powerful passage often attributed to "Germany's Shakespeare", writer, playwright, and philosopher poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  Not exactly.

In 1950, Scottish mountaineer, William Hutchinson Murray led the first Scottish expedition to the Kumaon Range, in the Himalayas between Tibet and Nepal.  They attempted nine mountains, and climbed five of them - a 450 mile expedition. Talk about marching forth!

In his 1951 book, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition, Murray wrote about commitment, "...when I said that nothing had been done I erred in one important matter.  We had definitely committed ourselves and were halfway out of our ruts.  We had put down our passage money - booked a sailing to Bombay.  This may sound too simple, but is great in consequence. Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.  Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans:  that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.  A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.  I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets:  Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!"

Murray's reference to Goethe, has led many to falsely attribute everything he wrote to Goethe.  The last lines though, set the Goethe Institute on a two year search for the origin of the quote. Finally, in March of 1998, they discovered that it is from an 1835, "very free translation" of Faust by John Anster. In this translation, the Manager, in Prelude at the Theatre says,"...then indecision brings its own delays, and days are lost lamenting over lost days.  Are you in earnest?  Seize this very minute; what you can do, or dream you can do, begin it; boldness has genius, power and magic in it".

What are you waiting for?  March forth!

I did not draw these Stargazer Lilies.  I've been experimenting with Picassa's pencil sketch option on my computer, to morph the photograph into a drawing.  My own tech version of the adult colouring book!

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.