izmeina | The Serpentine Mysteries- Question 1 (Reply)

acinonyxjubatus asked
What are your three favourite quotes, and why do you like them?

Well Izzie has a bit of a problem here. You see, I have been collecting quotes since my flobberworm days and cannot possibly choose just three. So I am going to cheat. I will first mention my 3 old favorites and then the new ones.

"In the beginning was the Word, but the Word had to be interpreted"

In the beginning....is always a good place to start a story. Not only do human creatures like stories but each person will, based on their own experience, probably see something different in the same story. This is not a problem unless they decide to go around insisting that they have the one true interpretation and it is their God given duty to save from damnation and eternal darkness those who dare to disagree. While I would not go to the extreme of moral relativism - at least those folks - wishy washy spineless creatures that they often are - they live and let live. But fundamentalists of whatever sort they are will not rest until the world is recast in their sad miserable dull colourless and Dursleyish image.

"Blessed are those who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed"

Dear me, I really am tempting fate with these twisted takes on Biblical quotes. I like this saying for its ambiguity. It could be either seen as the view of a cynic or of someone who believes that life is a gift. In my dark doomy gloomy Moaning Myrtle days, I used to think.'What is the point in asking for anything? The answer is sure to be 'no'' I was so afraid of rejection that I would come to that conclusion and then just sit in the corner having a pity party about how awfully cruel the world is and how unhelpful people are.
Now things are different. I think to myself...No harm in asking. Even if they do say no, that just leaves me in the position where I was to start with. So there is nothing to lose and everything to gain. And you know what is so strange? The answer is 'yes' far more often than not. I sometimes wonder..in fact am almost convinced that whatever you expect..acceptance or rejection...that is the signal you send out and people pick up on it and usually respond they way you expect them to.

"The Search for security (certainty) is the root of all evil"

Evil Izzie added this twist herself. Simply extending the scope of the original really. I first thought up this version during my darkest days in Durmieland when I was a House elf in the service of a creature that I call Heil Hilde. (Yes...Hilde was her name, although Dolores would have also been quite suitable)
She was the owner (and so-called manager) of a very posh nursing home charging 5000dm per month but in spite of such outrageous fees the residents still had to pay for bottled water if they wanted any from the kitchen. (And if you were stupid enough to die on the 3rd day of the month your estate would not get a single pfennig refund for the unused portion of the month.) While she called it "Seniorenresidenz Wellingsbuttel" quite a few of us workers thought that KZ Wellingsbuttel was infinitely more appropriate ;) (Wellingsbuttel is one of the Posh snotlands suburbs of Hamburg)
Izzie used to work in the kitchen and every other evening Hilde the owner would go to the big refrigerated store room to take out crates of soft drinks. She would puff and pant and sigh to herself as she fumbled with the locks and dragged the crates out. Then she would relock the fridge and there was so many keys on this key ring of hers (including the white Mercedes sports car with built in right of way) that they would make one hell of a jangling noise. Izzie used to think...the only reason you got yourself that stupid job..(and may it break your back ;)) is because you are utterly and absolutely convinced that us workers would steal your pathetic bottles of mineral water if you didn't lock them up.
She wouldn't trust anybody in even the smallest thing and was a total control freak. But all this desire for security and control wasn't making her any happier and certainly made the lives of the house elves miserable.
Well that is enough Hilde for the moment. But she will be back....as the original Diva of Dementors, she does have something of a starring role in the strange Izzie saga

Well. Back again for the second instalment. If it's exotic, erudite and esoteric explanations that you seek, then linger no longer. They are not to be found here.

"The Map is not the territory"

Well...I guess this is just a different take on "In the beginning..." Anyone who has ever had to deal with management gobblyedegook such as Organizational structure charts with the CEO on top when everyone knows that it is really the Secretary who runs the show or slogans like "Our people are our greatest asset" and "a new era of openness, effectiveness and accountability,..intent on preserving what ought to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited."....Not to even mention the dreaded Mission Statement will know exactly what this quote means.
There are so many layers of meaning and connotations to this quote that I wouldn't even know where to begin. And so I won't.

"There is no good and evil.There is only Power and those too weak to seek it."

Oh Yesssss. Izzie loves this one. This is the quote that started it all for Izzie. Was chatting on the phone to my fairy Godmother in Durmieland back in November 2001. That was before I became acquainted with the Potter boy. She often told me how good the books were but was not too impressed at all with the movie. She adds..."Well at least they left in the line "There is no good and evil. There is only power and those too weak to seek it"" Izzie thinks...well that's it. Anyone who can come up with a line like that has to be worth reading. And so began the grand adventure.
"My name is Izmeina and I am a Potterholic"
Aside from the fact that most of the people who have made Izzie's life a misery just happened to have that very same philosophy. Such as She-who-has-already-been-named. And not to forget She-who-I-haven't-got-around-to-mentioning-yet.
For those who do not know..whenever Izzie asks for the source of that quote..I invariably get answers like Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler.

And last but not least
"It is our choices....that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"

This was the one that confirmed Izzie's addiction beyond doubt. In fact I liked it so much that I made it my mantra for 2002. There are a lot of versions of this....most of which are about five lines long and none as short and to the point. People who are good at making excuses are seldom good at anything else.
Izzie was offered 30 silver sickles many moons ago and refused the offer. I sure as hell needed the money but suspected then and know for certain now that if I had taken it, that I would not even be alive today. It was delightful to see the confusion this caused to the Diva of Dementors who was so used to being able to buy whatever and whoever she wanted to see that there were two house elves whose souls were not for sale and who could therefore leave at a time of their choosing and she knew not the day nor the hour. (Of course without this so called Christmas bonus of 1000dm that had to be returned in full if you left before the end of June, we could not afford to leave but she did not know that)
This was my first taste of real power and I enjoyed every minute of it. Previously whenever the choice was between freedom and security, I had always chosen the latter, then later despised myself for being so weak and invariably ended up with neither freedom nor security just an indefinable sense of something lost.