"Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of everyday, placing it like a picture in a frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made more clear. Travel does this with the very stuff that everyday life is made of, giving to it the sharp contour and meaning of art.” – Freya Stark


And so channeling Freya Stark, a woman who knew a little something about travel, I love to go to grocery stores when I travel. The juxtaposition of the familiar with the foreign crystallizes the differences between my everyday(quotidian!!) experience and an everyday (quotidian!!!) experience in the country I am visiting. Going to the movies in a foreign country is another way to experience the dissonance. Although, since most of the movies on offer seem to be American it can be a sharp dissonance to emerge from a movie theater having been watching an American movie and walk out onto the pavement in an African country. I've done it, it's weird. But incredibly memorable.

"It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver."
Mohandas Gandhi


Tired and true statement, so often repeated it borders on corny, but today I embrace it wholeheartedly.

"President Karzai has been declared the winner of the Afghan election... So obviously he's the legitimate leader of the country."
Peter Gibbs White House Spokesperson

"Obvious" & "legitimate" are not adjectives that spring to mind when describing the electoral debacle that just took place in Afghanistan.

“People ask me what advice I have for a married couple struggling in their relationship. I always answer:
pray and forgive. And to young people from violent homes, I say: pray and forgive. And again, even to the single mother with no family support: pray and forgive."

– Mother Teresa


And when that doesn't work?

"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.