The zest, the generous affections, the illusions, the despair, all the traditional attributes of Youth...come and go with us through life; again and again in riper years we experience, under a new stimulus, what we thought had been finally left behind, the authentic impulse to action, the renewal of power and its concentration on a new object...
Evelyn Waugh
·I can’t stand it anymore of the Week
There's no doubt that government budgets are in trouble. The big lie is that the reason is excessive spending.
Public budgets are in trouble because revenues plummeted over the last two years of the Great Recession.
They're also in trouble because of tax giveaways to the rich.
Going after anything worthwhile in life entailed risk, of course. A man of ambition and courage didn't let that stop or delay him. A man accepted the dangers, the element of chance. If he didn't, he won nothing. ~John Jakes
"It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting."
"It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows."
"We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak."
"He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has."
"When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger."
"There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will."
"It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded, but the fear of pain or death."
~Epictetus
·Meditation of the week
The shy man usually finds that he has been shy without cause and that, in practice; no one takes the slightest notice of him. --Robert Lynd
We sometimes feel self-conscious in front of others. It may be that we've just gotten braces or a new haircut and we're afraid everyone will stare at us. We stop smiling and talk with our heads bowed. Many people have worn braces and many more will. We need not be ashamed just because we feel different. By beginning to smile again we will see how many people really didn't notice our braces, or our haircuts, or anything but what they see inside us.
All we need to do is lift our heads and smile. We will be amazed to find how little even our best friends notice about the externals, the things that don't really matter. Who we are is far more noticeable and far more important than what we look like. A smile at shy times helps us accept ourselves as others do.
·And finally, the culmination of millennia of scientific endeavor
Best text from “texting while intoxicated” website
(318): I understand how scissors can beat paper, and I get how rock can beat scissors, but there is no fucking way paper can beat rock. Is paper supposed to magically wrap around the rock and leave it immobile? Why can't paper do this to scissors? Screw scissors why can't paper so this to people!? Why aren't sheets of college ruled notebook paper constantly suffocating students as they take notes in class? I'll tell you why, because paper can't beat anybody! A rock would tear that sh!t up in like 2 seconds. When I play rock paper scissors I always choose rock. The when somebody claims to have beaten me with paper I can punch them in the face with my already clenched fist and say, "oh shit I'm sorry, I thought paper would protect you, you asshole!"
(1-318): I love you.
·Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people. ~John Adams
·The events of life are mainly small events - they only seem large when we are close to them. ~Mark Twain
·I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. ~George Washington
·Do, or do not. There is no "try."
--Yoda, in The Empire Strikes Back
·Meditation of the week
I find it awfully hard to give myself a break. I don't know where that attitude comes from. --Walker I.
"I can't. I shouldn't. It's my fault." These self-abasing and self-defeating thoughts are expressions of shame. Because repeated thoughts turn into beliefs and long-held beliefs turn into actions, thoughts rooted in shame can lead to tragedy.
People who live in shame come to believe that it is not okay to make a mistake. They imagine they should know what to do without having to learn it. They think their wrong judgments mean they themselves are wrong.
But it is human to make mistakes. If we acknowledge we are human, we are defining ourselves as people who always have something to learn (Thomas Edison failed to perfect the light bulb until his ten-thousandth try). We are saying we have to keep going if our plans don't work out right away (Walt Disney went bankrupt seven times before he met with success).
"Thou shalt not be human" is the command of shame. What rubbish! How can we be anything else? Why would we want to be?
I pray I will live comfortably with human limitations. I will try to accept from myself what I accept from others.
Ever since that moment
when it first occurred
to me that I would die
(like everyone on earth!)
I struggled against
this eventuality, but
never thought of
how I'd die, exactly,
until around thirty
I made a mental list:
hit by car, shot
in head by random ricochet,
crushed beneath boulder,
victim of gas explosion,
head banged hard
in fall from ladder,
vaporized in plane crash,
dwindling away with cancer,
and so on. I tried to think
of which I'd take
if given the choice,
and came up time
and again with He died
in his sleep.
Now that I'm officially old,
though deep inside not
old officially or otherwise,
I'm oddly almost cheered
by the thought
that I might find out
in the not too distant future.
Now for lunch.
Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you.
~Richard Bach
'Begin with the end in mind' is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation to all things. ~Stephen R. Covey
·Meditation of the week
He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven. -- Thomas Fuller
Often we're afraid to forgive others who've hurt us because we believe that, in doing so, we are permitting what they've done. This is not true. When we forgive, we are saying, "I pardon you, I give up any claim for revenge, you are no longer an enemy."
Relationships are not all black and white. We can forgive people and still not want to spend time with them. Forgiveness is for ourselves. It is a housecleaning of the heart. It feels good to sweep out the resentments and bitterness, lift up the windows, and let in the forgiveness.
Today let me offer forgiveness, either silently or out loud, to someone who has hurt me.
Daily dawns another day;
I must up, to make my way.
Though I dress and drink and eat,
Move my fingers and my feet,
Learn a little, here and there,
Weep and laugh and sweat and swear,
Hear a song, or watch a stage,
Leave some words upon a page,
Claim a foe, or hail a friend—
Bed awaits me at the end.
Though I go in pride and strength,
I'll come back to bed at length.
Though I walk in blinded woe,
Back to bed I'm bound to go.
High my heart, or bowed my head,
All my days but lead to bed.
Up, and out, and on; and then
Ever back to bed again,
Summer, Winter, Spring, and Fall—
I'm a fool to rise at all!
Video of the week
Shape shifting Octopus, amazing camouflage
·Song of the Week
Nataly Dawn and Jack Conte- These folks are getting 2 and 3 and 6 million hits on the tubeyou- (Energetic and talented young people are making great music in their dorm rooms)
·And finally, the culmination of millennia of scientific endeavor
My brother Rob shared this article with me and I am sharing it with you. I hope you read the whole article. It summarizes what I have believed since I stood in American classrooms and put my hand on my chest and recited words that were expected but never explained.
