About This Author
My name is Joy, and I love to write.
Why poetry, here? Because poetry uplifts its writer, and if she is lucky enough, her readers, too. Around us, so many objects abound to write about. Once a poet starts with a smallest, most trivial object, he shall discover that his pen will spill out what is most delicate or most majestic hidden inside him. Since the classics sometimes dealt with lofty subjects with a lofty language, a person with poetry in his soul may incline to emulate that. That is understandable. Poetry does that to a person: it enlarges the soul and gives it wings. Yet, to really soar, a poet needs to take off from the ground.
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Daily Cascade #1094382 added July 30, 2025 at 12:12pm Restrictions: None
About Jackie-O...Both Sides Now!
Prompt:
"I want to live my life, not record it."
Jackie Kennedy
Write about this quote in your Blog entry today.
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Me thinks: What is wrong with recording one's life? Isn't that why some of us keep diaries, journals, and such?
On the other hand, having lived through the Kennedy era, I can appreciate Jackie Kennedy's concerns. I think she was drawing a line between being and being observed. I think she resented to have been made into a spectacle. Yet, this was her fate for having been born into a prominent family and then marrying the most famous man in the world. Sometimes, none of us can overcome what life throws our way.
Looking into her words in the quote, I think this is what she really meant:
* As she was tortured by the constant media attention, she had grown sick and tired of being observed non-stop, documented, and analyzed in public. She really wanted to live like the rest of us, like a human being, and not like a specimen.
* As much as I favor "recording," living in the moment and "not recording" implies experiencing life directly. "Not recording" is Jackie's words of rebellion against those who are obsessed with self-image, image control, and legacy.
*Also, it just occurred to me that she didn't like being a symbol, for she was made to look like a symbol of grace, beauty, strength, and tragedy. I can understand her in that I and most other people I know would also become uncomfortable if being made into something like a mythological character.
*For all the reasons above that I could think of and possibly some others also, her "not recording" was an attempt of taking control over her life. Then, like most of us, who resent our very own situation, she also lived as if in rebellion, but did just the things that still put her in the public eye.
I guess stardom is an addiction in itself. It is an addiction that makes people do everything they can do, just to stay in the limelight. With that, Jackie was very successful regardless of what she said in the quote. Or else, we wouldn't have this prompt today and we wouldn't be writing about her after so many decades.
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