“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.”

“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good,
but that God will make us good because He loves us.”

~ C. S. Lewis

“Deal with it. Get over it. Or get help.”

"Deal with it. Get over it. Or get help."

"In moments of crisis, the initiative passes to those who are best prepared."

The Laws of the Public Policy Process

by Morton C. Blackwell

1. Never give a bureaucrat a chance to say no.
2. Don't fire all your ammunition at once.
3. Don't get mad except on purpose.
4. Effort is admirable. Achievement is valuable.
5. Make the steal more expensive than it's worth.
6. Give 'em a title and get 'em involved.
7. Expand the leadership.
8. You can't beat a plan with no plan.
9. Political technology determines political success.
10. Sound doctrine is sound politics.
11. In politics, you have your word and your friends; go back on either and you're dead.
12. Keep your eye on the main chance and don't stop to kick every barking dog.
13. Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good.
14. Remember the other side has troubles too.
15. Don't treat good guys like you treat bad guys.
16. A well-run movement takes care of its own.
17. Hire at least as many to the right of you as to the left of you.
18. You can't save the world if you can't pay the rent.
19. All gains are incremental; some increments aren't gains.
20. A stable movement requires a healthy, reciprocal I.O.U. flow among its participants. Don't keep a careful tally.
21. An ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness.
22. Never miss a political meeting if you think there's the slightest chance you'll wish you'd been there.
23. In volunteer politics, a builder can build faster than a destroyer can destroy.
24. Actions have consequences.
25. The mind can absorb no more than the seat can endure.
26. Personnel is policy.
27. Remember it's a long ball game.
28. The test of moral ideas is moral results.
29. You can't beat somebody with nobody.
30. Better a snake in the grass than a viper in your bosom.
31. Don't fully trust anyone until he has stuck with a good cause which he saw was losing.
32. A prompt, generous letter of thanks can seal a commitment which otherwise might disappear when the going gets rough.
33. Governing is campaigning by different means.
34. You cannot make friends of your enemies by making enemies of your friends.
35. Choose your enemies as carefully as you choose your friends.
36. Keep a secure home base.
37. Don't rely on being given anything you don't ask for.
38. In politics, nothing moves unless pushed.
39. Winners aren't perfect. They made fewer mistakes than their rivals.
40. One big reason is better than many little reasons.
41. In moments of crisis, the initiative passes to those who are best prepared.
42. Politics is of the heart as well as of the mind. Many people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
43. Promptly report your action to the one who requested it.
44. Moral outrage is the most powerful motivating force in politics.
45. Pray as if it all depended on God; work as if it all depended on you.

Morton C. Blackwell, President, Leadership Institute

http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/resources/resourcesmain.cfm?section=speeches&s=11 as of 6/17/2006

"It may look like a crisis, but it's only the end of an illusion."

"It may look like a crisis, but it's only the end of an illusion."

The Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice, by Gerald Weinberg, 1986

a Brilliant German word "Enttäuschung" means: Ent(fernen) = Remove, Täuschung = Illusion, Remove the Illusion

Enttäuschung (pronounced ent-TOY-shung)

following quoted from Inc.,
"Emotionally Intelligent People Use a Brilliant German Word to Turn Disappointment Into Motivation,"  by Justin Bariso, Feb. 25, 2024,
https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/emotionally-intelligent-people-use-this-brilliant-german-word-to-turn-disappointment-into-motivation.html  as of 9/4/2025.

Maya Watson was thriving at Netflix. Her team was crushing it. Everyone told Watson how great she was, that she was knocking at the door of the most senior level of the company. Yet, years went by. Plenty of promises and no action. . . .

Then, one day, Maya ran into one of her mentors, a well-respected VP at the company. Seeing that Maya looked frustrated, he asked if she was OK.

“No, I’m not OK,” Maya replied. “What more do I need to show? How much longer do I have to wait?”

Maya’s mentor chuckled. Looking her dead in the eye, he said:

“I have more than 200 people in my organization. It’s not statistically possible for me to think about their development or road map for their life and career. You have to take matters into your own hands or you’ll be waiting forever. No one is coming to save you.”

Maya stood there speechless.

“He was absolutely right and I couldn’t believe I never saw it that way until that moment,” says Maya. “I have always believed that frustration comes from a gap between expectations and reality. It set me free.”

That conversation set Maya on a new path. Within a couple of years, she left Netflix. And less than two years after that, she had co-founded a company and was working–-and living–-on her own terms.

All of this because Maya was able to finally see reality. She was able to “remove the illusion.”

This story reminded me of a . . . brilliant German word with a fascinating meaning.

The word is Enttäuschung (pronounced ent-TOY-shung).

Enttäuschung is officially translated “disappointment,” but there’s a deeper meaning. . . .

Disappointment, as defined by Oxford, means “sadness or displeasure caused by the nonfulfillment of one’s hopes or expectations.” . . .

The word Enttäuschung literally means:

Ent(fernen) = Remove

Täuschung = Illusion 

Remove the illusion.

In other words, we often feel disappointment when the illusion of our expectations is removed, and we are forced to face reality. But this feeling can prove useful if you learn to harness it effectively. . . .

“‘Negative’ moods summon a more attentive, accommodating thinking style that leads you to really examine facts in a fresh and creative way,” writes [Harvard psychologist Susan] David. “When we’re overly cheerful, we tend to neglect important threats and dangers. … It’s when we’re in a bit of a funk that we focus and dig down.” . . .

You can change the relationship you have with disappointment. It doesn’t have to be saddening, or frustrating, or paralyzing.

You can make it motivating. Liberating. Empowering. . . .

Use that newfound knowledge to help you make better choices–-decisions grounded in reality. . . .

The illusion is gone. Now it’s time to act.

30 Little Turtles

"A bottle of bottled water held 30 little turtles.

It didn't matter that each turtle had to rattle a metal ladle in order to get a little bit of noodles, a total turtle delicacy.

The problem was that there were many turtle battles for less than oodles of noodles."

“In my life, I’m not judging people by what they look like, because I don’t really see it,” Richard Osman said.

quotes from "Pierce Brosnan says Richard Osman was ‘too scared’ to visit Thursday Murder Club set"

https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/news/pierce-brosnan-richard-osman-netflix-thursday-murder-club-b2808457.html

by Maira Butt, Sunday 17 August 2025 19:01 EDT

quotes:

Pierce Brosnan has revealed that Thursday Murder Club writer Richard Osman was “too scared” to go on the set of the Netflix adaptation of his book.

“I think he was scared to come to the set, possibly,” the Die Another Day actor told Saga magazine. “He was a bit nervous, but he did join us and so did Steven [Spielberg, who is a producer on the movie].”

Brosnan stars alongside Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie in the forthcoming movie, which is set to be released in some cinemas later this month on 22 August, and on Netflix on 28 August.

It follows the story of a group of pensioners living in a sleepy retirement village, who form a group to investigate murders at their leisure. Based on the internationally bestselling book series by Osman, who will release the narrative’s fifth instalment next month.

Brosnan praised Thursday Murder Club for exploring the lives of older people, who he said are often “pushed to the side” of society.

“It will bring great comfort to people who are getting old,” he said. “We don’t really look after the elders in our society, they get pushed to the side. It’s a story of dignity and hope.” . . .

Osman has previously said that his visual impairment has informed his characters, who have become much-loved by readers.

“In my life, I’m not judging people by what they look like, because I don’t really see it,” he said.

“I read books sometimes and someone will say, ‘someone has a twitch of their lip,’ or ‘their eyes do something,’ and I’m like, ‘I’ve never seen that. I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ That’s not how I see the world. I don’t see what people look like, but I do get a very strong vibe of the world, how people talk, the attitude that people have.”

Your Energy

"You should think of your energy as if it's expensive, as if it's a luxury item not everyone can afford. What you spend your energy on, that's the day."

~ Taylor Swift

Dallas Willard: "Why are Christians so mean to one another so often?"

quotes from Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard:

Christians are routinely taught by example and word that it is more important to be right (always in terms of their beloved vessel, or tradition) than it is to be Christlike...

It aims to get people into heaven rather than to get heaven into people...

Now, the project thus understood and practiced is self-defeating. It implodes upon itself because it creates groups of people who may be ready to die, but clearly are not ready to live. They rarely can get along with one another, much less those "outside." Often their most intimate relations are tangles of reciprocal harm, coldness, and resentment. They have found ways of being "Christian" without being Christlike....

As a result they actually fall far short of getting as many people as possible ready to die, because the lives of the "converted" testify against the reality of "the life that is life indeed" (ontos zoas, 1 Timothy 6:19, PAR).

- Dallas Willard (Renovation of the Heart)

www.facebook.com/theologywithhumility

Dallas Willard on "Why are Christians so mean to one another so often?"

quotes from Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ, 2002

Mean Christians: “a mean-spirited suspicion and judgment that mirrors the broader culture … you can be vilified for just the slightest move that is displeasing to someone” 

“Christians are routinely taught by example and word that it is more important to be right [about church traditions] … than it is to be Christlike.  In fact, being right licenses you to be mean, and indeed, requires you to be mean—righteously mean, of course.  You must be hard on people who are wrong, and especially if they are in positions of Christian leadership.  They deserve nothing better.  This is … the practice of ‘condemnation engineering.’” (p. 238) 

Result:  groups of people who “rarely can get along with one another, much less those ‘outside.’ Often their most intimate relations are tangles of reciprocal harm, coldness, and resentment.” — “being ’Christian’ without being Christlike” (p. 239)

Another Result: “multitudes of people (surrounded by churches) who will not be in heaven because they have never, to their knowledge, seen the reality of Christ in a living human being” (p. 239)

(YIKES!!!)

“In a crisis, if you’re prepared, you win.”

“In a crisis, if you’re prepared, you win.”

~ Jorge H. Martínez, the owner of a small Mexican company near the U.S. border who is grateful for Trump's tariffs.

“Truth is, this whole thing benefited us.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/world/americas/mexico-trump-tariffs.html

When Mark Twain married Olivia Langdon . . .

When Mark Twain married Olivia Langdon, he told a friend:

"If I’d known how happy married life would make me, I’d have married 30 years earlier—skipping the whole business of growing teeth."

He was 32 at the time.

They couldn’t have been more different. Samuel Clemens (Twain’s real name) grew up in a poor family, worked from a young age, and tried his hand at everything — from piloting steamboats to mining silver — before becoming a writer. Olivia was the refined daughter of a wealthy businessman.

Twain fell in love with her… before they even met. A friend showed him a locket with Olivia’s portrait and invited him to visit. Within two weeks of meeting her in person, he proposed. She declined. Twice. The first time, she cited the age gap and his rough manners. The second time, his lack of religious devotion. Twain promised to become a good Christian for her, but still, she hesitated — even though in her heart, she already loved him.

Fate intervened when his carriage overturned on the way out of town. Pretending to be seriously injured, Twain ended up back in her home. Olivia offered to nurse him — and after yet another proposal, she finally said “yes.”

From that day on, Twain did everything to keep her happy. He read her the Bible every evening, prayed before meals, and even kept 15,000 pages of his writing unpublished because he knew she wouldn’t approve. She was his first editor, censoring anything too bold — once even removing Huck Finn’s “Confound it!” because it was too coarse.

Twain once said: “I’d stop wearing socks if she told me it was immoral.” She called him her “gray-haired boy” and looked after him as if he were one. In return, he credited her with keeping his energy, humor, and childlike spirit alive.

Even in hard times — losing children, bankruptcy, Olivia’s illness — they leaned on each other. Twain’s humor was her medicine; he filled their home and garden with silly notes to make her smile, even instructing birds when and how loudly to sing outside her window.

They never raised their voices to each other, never had a scandal, and never stopped being each other’s safe place. For one of her birthdays, Twain wrote:

"Every day we’ve lived together has deepened my certainty that we will never regret uniting our lives. With every year, my love for you, my dear, grows stronger. Let’s look forward — to future anniversaries, to old age — without fear or sadness."

A love story for the ages. 🥰

from Facebook, origin and validity unknown

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."

~Mark Twain