I participated in the A&E network’s Recovery Project in New York City on September 12th. I have posted some of the photos we took that day right here http://raisehightheroofbeamcarpenterseward.blogspot.com/
Quotes of the week
If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself.
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
~Mark Twain
Meditation of the week
Two things a man should never be angry at: what he can help, and what he cannot help.
--Thomas Fuller
In the Serenity Prayer, we pray for the wisdom to know the difference between what we can change and what we cannot. That distraction can be hard for many of us to recognize. When we finally see the reality clearly – that some things we face cannot be controlled by our own will or fixed by force – new possibilities open up to us. When we stop trying to move a mountain, our relationship to the mountain changes. We start to live at peace with the mountain. At the same time we can take greater responsibility for those parts of our lives that we can change.
Peace of mind comes from accepting what we can do nothing about and taking responsibility for what we can.
--Thomas Fuller
In the Serenity Prayer, we pray for the wisdom to know the difference between what we can change and what we cannot. That distraction can be hard for many of us to recognize. When we finally see the reality clearly – that some things we face cannot be controlled by our own will or fixed by force – new possibilities open up to us. When we stop trying to move a mountain, our relationship to the mountain changes. We start to live at peace with the mountain. At the same time we can take greater responsibility for those parts of our lives that we can change.
Peace of mind comes from accepting what we can do nothing about and taking responsibility for what we can.
Poem of the Week
An Inheritance
"Five dollars, four dollars, three dollars, two,
One, and none, and what do we do?"
This is the worry that never got said
But ran so often in my mother's head
And showed so plain in my father's frown
That to us kids it drifted down.
It drifted down like soot, like snow,
In the dream-tossed Bronx, in the long ago.
I shook it off with a shake of the head.
I bounced my ball, I ate warm bread,
I skated down the steepest hill.
But I must have listened, against my will:
When the wind blows wrong, I can hear it today.
Then my mother's worry stops all play
And, as if in its rightful place,
My father's frown divides my face.
One, and none, and what do we do?"
This is the worry that never got said
But ran so often in my mother's head
And showed so plain in my father's frown
That to us kids it drifted down.
It drifted down like soot, like snow,
In the dream-tossed Bronx, in the long ago.
I shook it off with a shake of the head.
I bounced my ball, I ate warm bread,
I skated down the steepest hill.
But I must have listened, against my will:
When the wind blows wrong, I can hear it today.
Then my mother's worry stops all play
And, as if in its rightful place,
My father's frown divides my face.
Author of the week
“We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it.”
..."You see, our predecessors understood that government could not, and should not, solve every problem. They understood that there are instances when the gains in security from government action are not worth the added constraints on our freedom. But they also understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little; that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, and the vulnerable can be exploited. And they knew that when any government measure, no matter how carefully crafted or beneficial, is subject to scorn; when any efforts to help people in need are attacked as un-American; when facts and reason are thrown overboard and only timidity passes for wisdom, and we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter – that at that point we don’t merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves.
What was true then remains true today. I understand how difficult this health care debate has been. I know that many in this country are deeply skeptical that government is looking out for them. I understand that the politically safe move would be to kick the can further down the road – to defer reform one more year, or one more election, or one more term.
But that’s not what the moment calls for. That’s not what we came here to do. We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it. I still believe we can act even when it’s hard. I still believe we can replace acrimony with civility, and gridlock with progress. I still believe we can do great things, and that here and now we will meet history’s test.
Because that is who we are. That is our calling. That is our character. Thank you, God Bless You, and may God Bless the United States of America.
What was true then remains true today. I understand how difficult this health care debate has been. I know that many in this country are deeply skeptical that government is looking out for them. I understand that the politically safe move would be to kick the can further down the road – to defer reform one more year, or one more election, or one more term.
But that’s not what the moment calls for. That’s not what we came here to do. We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it. I still believe we can act even when it’s hard. I still believe we can replace acrimony with civility, and gridlock with progress. I still believe we can do great things, and that here and now we will meet history’s test.
Because that is who we are. That is our calling. That is our character. Thank you, God Bless You, and may God Bless the United States of America.
President Obama- September 2009
Video of the week
It was on September 7 in 1927 that a man named Philo T. Farnsworth transmitted the first ever all-electronic television picture in history.
