"Writing essays for college admissions sucks."
Anonymous


Some things never change. Generations of college bound students will recognize anonymous' sentiments.

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou

For better or for worse.

“Happiness is the greatest hiding place for despair.”
Soren Kierkegaard


What ever does he mean? I am intrigued.

"Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, everyday, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.”
Christopher Morley

Good advice. If you are reading this blog, you are already doing # 1, #2, #3 and, by extension, #4 of Morley's advice.

"Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress."
Mohandas Gandhi


The whole world must be progressing at the moment.

"There is a hard law… When an injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive.”
- Alan Paton


Ain't that the truth.

"In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: either she's a feminist or a masochist."
—Gloria Steinem


Is the Obama White House too much of a frat house? A question poised by the NYTimes today. Has Obama changed so much as president? When he was running for office he was widely touted as a feminist - remember? Strong mother, strong wife, strong mother-in-law, strong woman as chief advisor. Now he is president and because he likes to play a game of basketball in which no women played his feminism is being questioned. Gotta love the media. Something always has to be wrong.

“I want to do it because I want to do it”
Amelia Earheart

And she did do it. You go girl.

"Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say goodnight til it be morrow."
William Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet

Sweet Dreams.

"Civilization runs a greater risk if we maintain our present attitude to religion than if we give it up."
Sigmund Freud


I am reading about the Catholic Church's courting of disgruntled Anglicans with much glee. Five hundred years after Henry VIII and those who opposed him brought much suffering to the world in the name of religious freedom, some Anglicans are finding their church too liberal and considering returning to the conservative fold of Catholicism. What would Henry [VIII] think?

"Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputation or social standards never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest are willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathies with despised ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences."
—Susan B. Anthony

Of course, if those earnest people who are willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathies with despised ideas and their advocates fail at their proposed reform and do not become famous, like Susan B., the consequences can be severe. It can be a very lonely ride. Is it worth it? I believe it is. Loneliness is preferable to hypocrisy.

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."
Abraham Lincoln


I thought an appropriate quote on the day it was revealed that the whole hot air balloon episode involving 6 year old Falcon Keene was a hoax staged by his parents for publicity. The poor child. His parents used him and all the rescue workers and law enforcement people who came to Falcon's "rescue", the desire for fame placed above the well-being of their child and all those who potentially risked their lives to rescue Falcon. I hope their shame knows no end.

"In the long run, we only ever hit what we aim at.”
Thoreau


Aim high and straight. Don't take your eye off your target.

"A host of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze."
William Wordsworth


Planted 300 + of the little yellow buggers today. I look forward to seeing them dancing in the breeze 6 months from now.

"The antidote to exhaustion is not necessarily rest .... The antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness."
Brother David

Oh, how I long to believe this, and find my wholeheartedness. Blogging just isn't doing it for me, but it's a start.

"In the last decade or so, science has discovered a tremendous amount about the role emotions play in our lives. Researchers have found that even more than IQ, your emotional awareness and abilities to handle feelings will determine your success and happiness in all walks of life, including family relationships."
John Gottman
Emotional Intelligence

Too late for some of us.

"Looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
An thinking of the days that are no more."
- Alfred Lord Tennyson

After a wordless (long) weekend, I'm back.

“In the beginning of heaven and earth there were no words, words came out of the womb of matter"
Lao Tzu

"The world’s troubles are your troubles … and there is nothing wrong with the world that better human beings cannot fix."
John Sloan Dickey


I'm working on both at the moment...fixing the world's troubles and being a better human being. Of course, Obama has me beat in both categories, but hey , thank god for that.

‘’surprised and deeply humbled”
Barack Obama on winning a Nobel Peace Prize


But I hope he's also pleased. I am pleased for him, and for us.

"CAVEAT EMPTOR."


It's worth learning Latin to learn the meaning, literal and educational, of this popular saying.
But, if you're busy learning other languages at the moment, the translation is "BUYER BEWARE".
How true it is since the beginning of time.

"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men."
Herman Melville


...unfortunately. We are connected, but not all connections are positive. As the connection endures, we have to endure.

"No good deed goes unpunished."
Clare Booth Luce

A cynical observation by a worldly woman.

"A son is a son till he takes him a wife, a daughter is a daughter all of her life."
~Irish Saying


Happy Birthday to my daughter.

"I've learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances."
—Martha Washington

Do we know if our dispositions stem from our circumstances, or our circumstances from our dispositions? According to new research done by Jerome Kagan, a psychologist at Harvard, people are born with their dispositions. He has proven that it is possible to see in infants the characteristics of an anxious personality. I would like to see the research that shows us how to improve our dispositions, and by extension, our circumstances.

"The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


A local fellow, our Henry. A local quote for the local rain.

"Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress."
Mohandas Gandhi


Today is the 140th Anniversary of the Mahatma's birthday.

"Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit."
- Oscar Wilde




OUCH! Called on the carpet by the master himself.