Quote of the Day | March 25, 2008: It's Not the Thing You Fling, It's the Fling Itself

Chris Stevens flinging the fictional town of Cicely, Alaska into Spring, from the "Burning Down the House" episode of Northern Exposure, 1992:

I've been here now for some days, groping my way along, trying to realize my vision here. I started concentrating so hard on my vision that I lost sight. I've come to find out that it's not the vision, it's not the vision at all. It's the groping. It's the groping, it's the yearning, it's the moving forward.

I was so fixated on that flying cow that when Ed told me Monty Python already painted that picture, I thought I was through. I had to let go of that cow so I could see all the other possibilities. Anyway, I want to thank Maurice for helping me to let go of that cow. Thank you Maurice for playing Apollo to my Dionysus in art's Cartesian dialectic. And thanks to you, Ed, cause the truth shall set us free! And Maggie, thank you for sharing in the destruction of your house so that today we could have something to fling.

I think Kierkegaard said it oh so well, "The self is only that which is in the process of becoming." Art? Same thing. James Joyce had something to say about it too: "Welcome, oh life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience, and to forge in the smythe of my soul the uncreated conscious of my race."

We're here today to fling something that bubbled up from the collective unconsciousness of our community. Ed, you about ready? The thing I learned folks, this is absolutely key: It's not the thing you fling. It's the fling itself. Let's fling something, Cicely!

Tags: Northern Exposure, Chris in the Morning