From Silvia Hartmann.
My answer to this one surprised myself.
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The title for this exercise and the exercise itself derives from a real life situation, where someone was very depressed in the work they were doing and wanted nothing more than being away from all of that, but their family put this immense pressure on them to stay and complete the entire lengthy course of training.
The main reason cited for this was that should "the worst come to the worst", the person would always have their qualifications to fall back upon.
That sounds reasonable, but I remember crying out, "What does that mean, when the worst comes to the worst? After a nuclear holocaust? And there's someone selling roast rats on a stick? There's this huge crowd of starving survivors gathered around, and they're making offers of trade ˆ "I'll give you my virgin daughter!" ˆ "I'll give you a sackload of jewelry!"
And what are you going to shout?
Wave your certificate in the air and go, "I have an IT qualification!"
HOW exactly is THAT going to help "when the worst comes to the worst"?
The person in question laughed heartily and resigned that very day ˆ and is much happier now in a different career altogether.
The point of this exercise is however, for us to consider just what qualities we have that would stand us in good stead "when the worst comes to the worst", such as in the roast rats on a stick scenario.
These qualities are NOT certificates or university qualifications; the qualities you need to survive and thrive are inside you, and a part of you, and the most important part of you, indeed.
What qualities do YOU have that will be your saving grace "when the worst comes to the worst"?
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Final Identity exclaimed:
This whole thread bugs me because the proper expression is, "When worse comes to worst." Being grammatically accurate with the comparative-to-superlative progression makes the entire expression make sense. Stating instead, as has happened here, the mindless "worst to worst" progression simply indicates lack of clear thinking. "Worst" can't "come to" something that is ALSO called "worst": it's already there.
Back to Eolake:
It's funny, since my bitching about expressions quoted wrong, I've discovered several wrong expressions that I might use myself without being bothered. I guess it's just being aware of how they're wrong, if they are.
By the way, I try to make it clear which text is quoted, and which is mine. Is anybody ever confused about it?
15 comments:
"Well, I know a nice ratatouille recipe to cook that! What say you?"
Mmm... this question is a bit scary and I'm not sure I want to find out the answers... I'd probably be the rat.
Ahh, ratatouille, always reminds me of Edge of Darkness, a brilliant TV series. Kind of fits the theme of this post too.
What qualities do YOU have that will be your saving grace "when the worst comes to the worst"?
I am not sure it is possible to know the answer to this. The worst can come to worst in different ways, and I think we all have a number of qualities that could turn out useful.
In fact, I think everything we are stands a good chance of being useful. And also, isn't the concept of worst a rather elusive idea? When would we declare 'worst coming to worst' to have begun? Some people might even consider living it now.
A much more frightening question to me would be this: What qualities do you have that will be your saving grace when everything turns out absolutely the way you want them to?
I don't think even the ratatouille can save us there.
MM: LOL.
TTL: my own answer, like the best ones, came to me instantly and intuitively. And it was "people skills".
This surprised me greatly, because I am not an open and outgoing person. But it may be correct, because I have a near-unfailing diplomacy and persistence in a crisis.
Eolake: After reading your original post I immediately thought of people skills in reference to you. It is quite obvious that you are very good at it. (Perhaps it is equally obvious that it is not my strongest point. :-)
However, I stand by my words. The question is ludicrous because the concept 'worst coming to worst' does not have a clear enough definition.
For example, what if you were alone? Your people skills wouldn't be that helpful then. You would have to draw from your toolbox another skill to apply.
I can make a meal from pretty much anything. I'm reasonably fast and intelligent, so I can kill things should I get hungry. Not much disgusts me, so if things really got bad, I'd have no problem eating some of the more useless people around. I also know how quite a few things work and I'm pretty hand with tools, so I might even be able to assist in the building of something that resembles society -- where we eat the useless.
where we eat the useless.
On the menu you could be the side dish and TTL would be an appetizer and the main course would be laurie lol and I would be dessert lol, remember I'm just joking folks, its all in fun here.
ps.. I'll take Hannah to go, yummy!
... Guys, maybe you could keep the humor slightly less.. avant garde?
eolake said...
... Guys, maybe you could keep the humor slightly less.. avant garde?
Okay Eolake, we're sorry. OKay? Won't happen again sir.
Eolake said...
"I have a near-unfailing diplomacy and persistence in a crisis."
If it can't bring peace in the Middle East, it's not truly a super-power, buddy. Barely a talent.
I'm not even sure you could help me get along with my two brothers. The three of us reunited under one roof: now THAT's a crisis!
Anonymous said...
"I'd have no problem eating some of the more useless people around."
Eeyuck! You don't even know where that's been, man! Gross.
Eating some of this stuf could very well poison you, you know. Would you eat a bright-yellow clown with a scottish name? It's all chemicals inside.
"where we eat the useless."
Hmm... I'm not sure they're completely useless, if they're actually edible. They say cattle are useful animals, don't they?
P.S.: Can that rat stick double as a toothpick once you're done eating? Sounds interesting...
I guess a rat fed with clean food would resemble rabbit, just like chicken resembles turkey. Provided they're not bred on the carcasses of the useless, naturally!
This whole thread bugs me because the proper expression is, "When worse comes to worst." Being grammatically accurate with the comparative-to-superlative progression makes the entire expression make sense. Stating instead, as has happened here, the mindless "worst to worst" progression simply indicates lack of clear thinking. "Worst" can't "come to" something that is ALSO called "worst": it's already there.
Final Identity said: "Stating instead, as has happened here, the mindless "worst to worst" progression simply indicates lack of clear thinking."
Thanks for this correction. Guilty as charged. My excuse is that not all English expressions are very logical to begin with, and with English being a foreign language to me, I simply assumed the form used in the original text was correct.
I often Google for expressions and spellings to find out which form is most popular. And unless I have other evidence I assume the most popular one is correct.
This time I didn't. (And neither did Ms. Hartmann, I presume.) But, interestingly, had I done so I might still have repeated the mistake. For according to Google, the incorrect form is twice as popular as the correct one.
Well, so much for "the wisdom of crowds", a book which has made a splash.
It has some merit, but it's very dangerous to take it too seriously.
"For according to Google, the incorrect form is twice as popular as the correct one."
And then there's:
"by envy" (which should by "by and by" or "by the by")
"by enlarge" (should be "by and large")
"for all intensive purposes" (should be "for all intents and purposes")
and a jillion more. There's a whole legionnaire of them. :)
I hope the worst doesen't come in the form of liverwurst. I'd rather eat roast rats than liver!!!
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