Quotes of the week
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. L. Mencken
A cat will look down to a man. A dog will look up to a man. But a pig will look you straight in the eye and see his equal. Unattributed Author, Psalms (l. 10)~
“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” –
Steve Jobs, in Commencement Address to Stanford students
Steve Jobs, in Commencement Address to Stanford students
Meditation of the week
I don't think you're suddenly going to begin to look at the world with new eyes when you're 80 if you haven't been doing it when you're 30.
--Janice Clark
We are creatures of habit as evidenced by our getting stuck in old viewpoints long after they have quit serving us. However, that fact doesn't restrict us for all time. Anytime we want to cultivate a new idea, an alternative approach to a situation, we are free to do so. Janice may be right regarding some people she has known, but we are capable of freshening our perspective at any age.
We have all known some elderly men and women who have the spirit and enthusiasm of the very young. Unfortunately, we have also known the reverse. How sad to observe the 40 or 50 year old person who has quit living. Their whining belies their age. Who will we be? The choice is always available to us. And we can remake it as often as we wish.
What a relief to know that if we're old and resentful today, we still have the opportunity to be young and full of laughter tomorrow. Maybe we can't do everything we used to do, but this decision is still in our power.
I will open my eyes to whatever I choose to see today. Yesterday's experiences have only the power I give them.
--Janice Clark
We are creatures of habit as evidenced by our getting stuck in old viewpoints long after they have quit serving us. However, that fact doesn't restrict us for all time. Anytime we want to cultivate a new idea, an alternative approach to a situation, we are free to do so. Janice may be right regarding some people she has known, but we are capable of freshening our perspective at any age.
We have all known some elderly men and women who have the spirit and enthusiasm of the very young. Unfortunately, we have also known the reverse. How sad to observe the 40 or 50 year old person who has quit living. Their whining belies their age. Who will we be? The choice is always available to us. And we can remake it as often as we wish.
What a relief to know that if we're old and resentful today, we still have the opportunity to be young and full of laughter tomorrow. Maybe we can't do everything we used to do, but this decision is still in our power.
I will open my eyes to whatever I choose to see today. Yesterday's experiences have only the power I give them.
Poem of the Week
Judges in Summer
Sometimes people who judge and judge
turn lovely in summer, with gin & tonics.
They shop at little roadside stands;
brood in a trance over silks of corn.
Lounging around, still starched from swimming,
they speak mild words in the evening air
and leave the work of keeping up standards
to bickering children, questions of worth
to the waves. In town, in handkerchief dresses,
rumpled white suits, they smile, they visit—
they water the garden; hum with the cat.
In shirt and jeans they climb the rocks
with wine in a thermos, a bag of bread
to throw to those ravenous muscles the gulls—
and there they offer a round of applause
(of the gentle sort once used watching tennis)
to see the fat sun dip away
through its showy orange time.
turn lovely in summer, with gin & tonics.
They shop at little roadside stands;
brood in a trance over silks of corn.
Lounging around, still starched from swimming,
they speak mild words in the evening air
and leave the work of keeping up standards
to bickering children, questions of worth
to the waves. In town, in handkerchief dresses,
rumpled white suits, they smile, they visit—
they water the garden; hum with the cat.
In shirt and jeans they climb the rocks
with wine in a thermos, a bag of bread
to throw to those ravenous muscles the gulls—
and there they offer a round of applause
(of the gentle sort once used watching tennis)
to see the fat sun dip away
through its showy orange time.
Videos of the week
I don’t think this is funny but I’m not sure
BP spills coffee (thanks Lee!)
Websites of the week
http://www.nytimes-se.com/ an issue I can only hope for!
And finally, the culmination of millennia of scientific endeavor
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which "people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it."[1]
In the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. ” — Bertrand Russell[2][3]
