Mark Twain, Don’t Quote Me On That

You know the quote that goes around all the time on social networking sites? You know, this one:

“Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you’ve never been hurt and live like it’s heaven on Earth.” –Mark Twain*

I’ve never done any of those things, have you? I dance like the world is dancing against me. Sing to annoy and you better listen! Love like passion is pummeling me and live like tomorrow is heaven. Unfortunately for me, since tomorrow soon becomes today, I wind up having to wait yet another 24 hours for heaven and so on… One day maybe I’ll get ahead of myself. Overall though, I’m quite happy, in so much as, heck, life is good, mostly.

I love Mark Twain. I’ve read his books and even biographies. Interestingly I’ve never seen mention of him singing and dancing or loving without repercussion. Truth be told, Twain was a bitter old misanthrope, even as a kid. He was a depressive. A brilliant one, mind you, but sad all the same.

I often see his quotes floating by in my Twitter stream, on people’s Facebook walls, in bios on MySpace profiles and I could keep name dropping all the social network sites I’m on, but this isn’t about me, it’s about Twain. Mostly. I’ve always felt he coined two different types of quotes. The ones tossed off for the easily pleased who don’t really “get it,” and then the ones he gifted to those who look beyond the surface and “get it” till it hurts. Which one am I? Both. Which one are you?
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Real curious…
I once asked someone who quotes Twain all the time,
like he’s got Twain Tourrettes, I asked,
“Which is your favorite work by him?”
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The answer surprised me.
.
The Twain quoter said, “I’ve never read him,
what kind of things does he write?”
.
What?
.
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But it’s of no never mind since the quotes live and breathe on their own, no assembly required.

But I hope you’ve read Twain.
I sometimes wonder if Twain were here and on a social networking site would he accept my friend request? I often conclude that he wouldn’t and that usually makes me happy. I’d prefer he keep to himself so he has more time to finally dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like he’d never been hurt and live like it’s heaven on earth.
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*The actual quote is indeed attributed to Mark Twain, but was actually coined by William Purkey* Or was it?

[This piece was originally posted October 8, 2009 as a guest blog on
Dust Bunnies]

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Tagged as: Mark Twain, Quotes, Social Networks, Twitter, wit