≡ Menu

The Bear Behind You

by Vanderleun on August 29, 2019

Always take the initiative.
There is nothing wrong with spending a night in jail if it means getting the shot you need.
Send out all your dogs and one might return with prey.
Never wallow in your troubles; despair must be kept private and brief.
Learn to live with your mistakes.
Expand your knowledge and understanding of music and literature, old and modern.
That roll of unexposed celluloid you have in your hand might be the last in existence, so do something impressive with it.
There is never an excuse not to finish a film.
Carry bolt cutters everywhere.
Thwart institutional cowardice.
Ask for forgiveness, not permission.
Take your fate into your own hands.
Learn to read the inner essence of a landscape.
Ignite the fire within and explore unknown territory.
Walk straight ahead, never detour.
Manoeuvre and mislead, but always deliver.
Don’t be fearful of rejection.
Develop your own voice.
Day one is the point of no return.
A badge of honor is to fail a film theory class.
Chance is the lifeblood of cinema.
Guerrilla tactics are best.
Take revenge if need be.
Get used to the bear behind you.

24 Life Lessons from Werner Herzog

Related Posts:

Comments on this entry are closed.

Mary Ann August 29, 2019, 3:10 PM

For my little world…#4 and #9( except it’s needle nose pliers not bolt cutters).

∞
Mary Ann August 29, 2019, 3:14 PM

For me in my little world it’s #4 and #9 (except it’s needle nose pliers not bolt cutters).

∞
Jeff Brokaw August 30, 2019, 5:03 AM

Great advice, and I learned nearly all of it the hard way, and continue to learn it that way as I enter my seventh decade.

Life is all about adapting, acquiring wisdom that enriches you, and discarding foolishness that holds you back.

∞
James ONeil August 30, 2019, 10:30 AM

Since I first saw the list I always mentally change #24 to Always be aware of the bear behind you.

∞

Next post: Rant0matic #9: “If she were a building she’d be condemned.”

Previous post: 2_B_R_0_2_B By Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Welcome to the New American Digest: 2001-2022

John Muir on Mt. Ritter by Gary Snyder

After scanning its face again and again,
I began to scale it, picking my holds
With intense caution. About half-way
To the top, I was suddenly brought to
A dead stop, with arms outspread
Clinging close to the face of the rock
Unable to move hand or foot
Either up or down. My doom
Appeared fixed. I MUST fall.
There would be a moment of
Bewilderment, and then,
A lifeless rumble down the cliff
To the glacier below.
My mind seemed to fill with a
Stifling smoke. This terrible eclipse
Lasted only a moment, when life blazed
Forth again with preternatural clearness.
I seemed suddenly to become possessed
Of a new sense. My trembling muscles
Became firm again, every rift and flaw in
The rock was seen as through a microscope,
My limbs moved with a positiveness and precision
With which I seemed to have
Nothing at all to do.

Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg

My head knocks against the stars.
 My feet are on the hilltops.
 My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life. 
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny. 
I have been to hell and back many times.
 I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God. 
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible. 
I know the passionate seizure of beauty 
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive  in the universe.