jennythereader: (* Card Catalog)
[personal profile] jennythereader
I want to put this sentence as the subtitle to my LJ, but it's longer than they allow.

You can't change the past, you can't change now, you can only try to change the future.

Any suggestions for how I could rephrase it to be shorter? I need to squeeze 20 characters out of it.

9:47 Edit: My new idea: The past and present are frozen, but the future is still fixable.

Date: 2011-01-26 03:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] 11th-letter.livejournal.com
But the future is not "fixable" because by definition it isn't broken...it hasn't happened yet, so nothing can have gone "wrong" that needs fixing. It literally does not exist until we make it so, which is the point of what you are trying to say.
What the future is is affectable, if that's a word.

Date: 2011-01-26 04:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jennythe-reader.livejournal.com
True... maybe I'll change it to "malleable," if that fits.

Date: 2011-01-26 11:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] stefka.livejournal.com
I was going to suggest "malleable." :)

Date: 2011-01-27 02:35 am (UTC)

Date: 2011-01-26 04:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jennythe-reader.livejournal.com
Although... I tend to think of deliberate changes as attempts to fix something that's wrong. And the entire idea started as saying that you can't fix something that's wrong right now, you can only try to change things so that they won't continue to be wrong.

Date: 2011-01-26 04:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] 11th-letter.livejournal.com
Yes, agreed. I just think that "change things" goes against what you are trying to say. Really, neither the past, present, nor the future can be changed...the first two because they have already happened and are set, and the future because it does not exist yet. Nothing can be "wrong" with something that doesn't exist.
What *can* be changed are patterns of behavior. So, if past or current (set) conditions are not to one's liking, one can attempt to change themselves, (or other people, good luck with that) such that when the future becomes the present, those now set conditions will be more favorable.

Date: 2011-01-26 04:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jennythe-reader.livejournal.com
Exactly. Unfortunately, it's hard to keep nuances like that when I'm trying to squeeze a concept down into a shortish sentence.

Date: 2011-01-26 06:21 pm (UTC)
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From: [personal profile] siderea
"Choose again." -- Bujold

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