Tuesday, March 11, 2008

HELP! OPINIONS NEEDED!

I use email a lot at work. It’s a great tool for communicating with all the different employees I work with. At the bottom of my email I have what’s called a signature. Its information that lets the person who is getting the email know who I am, what I do and how they can get a hold of me if they have questions. To personalize it a bit I decided to attach a quote I once read somewhere. Where I read this quote is beyond me, but I liked what it said, so I made it part of my signature.

“We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are.” Anais Nin

After having used this quote for several years, I became curious as to who Anais Nin was. So, I Googled her (clicking her name above will take you to a Wikipedia article about her) and found some interesting and shocking things about her. Interesting was that she was a prolific journal writer. She began at the age of 11 and kept it up for more than 60 years. What’s contained in some of those journals and a lot of the other things that she wrote is not a genre that I, or most of my friends, would consider reading. From the little I’ve read about her (the Wikipedia article) it seems as though she was a prolific writer of female erotica. Yep, you read that right.

So, here is where I pose my questions and ask you for your opinion. I’m conflicted about whether to keep the quote as part of my signature (it’s an awesome quote) or nix it on principle. Would people assume that because I’m quoting her that I’ve read her stuff? Does anyone really look that closely at my emails? And if they do look close enough to read it, would they be curious about the person and Google her like I did? Should I shun all appearances of evil? Would you think less of me if I kept the quote?

What do you think? HELP!!

9 comments:

Heather said...

I know who she is and seeing your quote wouldn't make me think any less of you at all or anything different about you. She did what she did, you are who you are and it's a good quote. I've never been a stickler for that kind of thing. That's just my impression - take it for what's it's worth! Happy Day!

Jeanette said...

That's a tough call. I don't think too many people will find out what genre she wrote, but you know and that may change how you feel about the quote.

It's amazing what you can learn by googling someone. I got a phone call from an old school mate who said he had "googled" me and got in contact. So I go to google my name and guess what I found? "Jeanette Mortensen" is a famous porn star from Denmark. Lovely.

Anonymous said...

I just wrote a comment saying that I didn't think you should use her quote.

And then I remembered that if you google MY name you'll find that I helped to transcribe video from a documentary on a photographer who specialized in nudes.

Hypocrisy, anyone?

(::this is me keeping my mouth shut!::)

Caleb T Ricks said...

I don't think that it is a big deal - if someone knows who she is then, it may give off some signal but who knows! I am as surprised as you - I have read that quote many time on your emails but never paid attention to who said it - does that make me lazy or just unaware?

Blarney Girl said...

K - If you're like me, I just took the quote at face value and didn't think I needed to google the author to see if they had a sordid history. I thought, with the theme of the quote, that she was a psychologist or something. Granted, with the type of stuff she wrote (and maybe even the reason why she wrote it), maybe she thought of herself as some sort of psychologist.

Who knows. For now, I've taken the quote off, but I'm still asking all my friends what they think.

Heather said...

Hey! Where's the book tag! I so should have tagged you for that one - I'm glad you grabbed it!

Blarney Girl said...

H - Sorry, I don't do much on Wednesdays after work except work at the Temple and then I don't get home until after 10, by which time I'm completely exhausted. So, I'll have to do it this morning while I'm at work!! LOL I brought my book with me just for that purpose!

Landlocked Shores said...

Keep it! Heck I'm a Porn Star too!

Naomi said...

Words is words. Just because someone lives a different way or has made different choices shouldn't devalue their wisdom or insight. It's a really good quote. quite true...and quite true to your predicament, don't you think?