"Virtue is not left to stand alone."

"Virtue is not left to stand alone. 
He who practices it will have neighbors."

~ Confucius 

“The atheism and nihilism of my earlier years now seems shallow, and even a bit cocky.”

“The atheism and nihilism of my earlier years now seems shallow, and even a bit cocky.”

"My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn’t understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me. But following Christ does not mean following His followers."

~ Anne Rice

https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2021/12/22/anne-rice-obituary-spirituality-vampire-242096

"Success is sometimes the outcome of a whole string of failures."

"Success is sometimes the outcome of a whole string of failures."

~ Vincent van Gogh

quote:

"With his spectacular paintings hanging in such venerable institutions as the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and New York’s Museum of Modern Art, it is hard to imagine that Vincent van Gogh ever experienced failure. But in reality, the Dutch post-impressionist artist went through overwhelming hardship in his life, both personally and professionally, and only found global fame and success after his death in 1890. If Van Gogh could see the silver lining of life’s dark storm clouds, then so can we."

quote from Inspiring Quotes email, December 23, 2021

Maya Angelou’s writing practice

"If you’re always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be."

~ Maya Angelou

quote:

Maya Angelou’s life was anything but normal. At the age of 16, she became the first Black woman to drive a San Francisco cable car. Later, after training as a dancer, actress, and singer, she toured with the musical “Porgy and Bess.” She also recorded an album of calypso music, wrote and acted in plays, composed film soundtracks, and organized protests against racial discrimination. Though she is now known primarily as a poet and autobiographer, she never limited herself to just one identity. 

Even Angelou’s writing practice might seem a bit eccentric: She would check herself into a hotel room in the morning with a legal pad, deck of cards, Bible, thesaurus, and a bottle of sherry, and write until early afternoon. The goal, as she put it, was to “enchant” herself: to "relive the agony, the anguish,” and to feel at last the ecstatic relief of telling her truth.

quote from Inspiring Quotes email, December 4, 2021

the affairs of your government

"If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government,
then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools."

~ Plato

“When people show you who they are, believe them.”

“When people show you who they are, believe them.”

~  Maya Angelou

"Great necessities call out great virtues."

"Great necessities call out great virtues."

~ Abigail Adams, First Lady

"It is in times of need, distress, and reckoning that great women and men rise to the occasion and act. First Lady Abigail Adams, along with her colonial American compatriots, witnessed countless examples of courage, sacrifice, humility, and honor during the American Revolution and the founding of the United States. In 1780, amid the trials of the Revolutionary War, Adams wrote these words in a letter to her young son, John Quincy Adams, to remind him that hard times require us to act on our best qualities."

quote from Inspiring Quotes email, November 29, 2021

"inside the person you know, there is a person you do not know”

“But in Syria there is a saying: inside the person you know, there is a person you do not know.”

~ Christy Lefteri, The Beekeeper of Aleppo

"Whoever is happy will make others happy too."

"Whoever is happy will make others happy too."

~ Anne Frank

Choose wisely

“Attitude is a choice.
Happiness is a choice.
Optimism is a choice.
Kindness is a choice.
Giving is a choice.
Respect is a choice.
Whatever choice you make makes you.
Choose wisely.”

~ Roy T. Bennett

A poem lovely as a tree.

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray.

~Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918)

“The body will go where the mind takes it”

quote:

The night my husband was diagnosed with cancer, a dear friend, @drstephmoore, said to buy a candle that very night. A candle? Seemed like an odd “doctor’s order.” 

“The body will go where the mind takes it,” she said. The body will go where the mind takes it. Light the candle, she told him. Focus on the flame. That’s the power of the human spirit, will, determination, love. Harness that strength. Now, watch the wax drip away. Those are the cancer cells. Envision them disappearing.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/celebrity/today-show-fans-rally-behind-hoda-kotb-after-she-shares-emotional-instagram/ar-AAQjEwd

The Light Collection

Its very essence is change. Be inspired by its flame. That’s your inner strength, the power of faith, hope and love. And may the wax that melts away take with it your troubles and doubts.

https://lifesaboutchange.com/pages/the-light-collection

9 percent fear ghosts and zombies

The New York Times Evening Briefing, October 29, 2021

quote:

Do you believe in ghosts? 

According to one study, about 9 percent of 1,035 adults surveyed this year said they feared ghosts and zombies (many more said they were afraid of government corruption, the coronavirus and civil unrest). Belief in paranormal phenomena has pervaded American culture and media for centuries. But researchers are now studying whether such beliefs are linked to an absence of religious affiliation.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/style/do-you-believe-in-ghosts.html

if you find a perfect church . . .

 The evangelist Billy Graham told a crowd, 

“If you find a perfect church, don’t join it. You’ll ruin it.”

"Well, you’re not such a great prize, either."

Elizabeth Strout Knows We Can’t Escape the Past

by Annabel Gutterman, October 13, 2021

https://time.com/6105980/elizabeth-strout-oh-william/  Accessed 10/21/2021

interview with Elizabeth Strout, quotes:

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have around marriage?

People, especially when they’re younger, get married thinking that their lives will be so much better. And hopefully they will be. But there’s this sense that there’s a perfect way to live, and there is not. Marriage is not the finishing line that sometimes people think it is.

What’s the best advice for a happy marriage?

My daughter told me that she heard this from a friend of hers, and I thought it was pretty amazing. She said: “Look in the mirror every morning and think to yourself, ‘Well, you’re not such a great prize, either.’” That sounds a little harsh, but I take the point. We all have our difficulties. You always think the other person’s not behaving the way you want them to, but then you look at yourself and realize, well, maybe I’m not behaving the way they want me to, either.

Time Magazine, Oct. 25/Nov. 1, 2021, p. 116

Chris Hemsworth: "Just get moving. Movement creates motivation."

Men's Health

Chris Hemsworth’s ‘Extraction 2’ Prep Has Got Him Looking Jacked as Hell

Philip Ellis, Mon, October 18, 2021

https://www.yahoo.com/news/chris-hemsworth-extraction-2-prep-174500298.html  accessed 10-21-2021

quote:

Hemsworth is a pro when it comes to pushing through fatigue. In a recent Instagram video, he shared his personal mantra for getting motivated and forcing himself to grind through his workouts even when he doesn't want to: "If you're feeling flat, just get moving. Movement creates motivation."

"what you would have wanted had you known"

 “Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted
but getting what you have, which
once you have it
you may be smart enough to see
is what you would have wanted had you known. ”

~ Garrison Keillor, Lake Wobegon U.S.A.

"if you want to test a man’s character, give him power"

quote from Snopes:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lincoln-character-power/ accessed 10/12/2021

Did Lincoln Say, ‘If You Want to Test a Man’s Character, Give Him Power’?

For nearly a century, people have made the mistake of claiming that a quotation about Lincoln was actually a quotation by him.

By Dan MacGuill,  Published 25 September 2019

... The full quotation is usually given as, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

In reality, Lincoln never uttered or wrote those words, or words to that effect. Rather, they were said about him. The original version of the quotation came on Jan. 16, 1883, during a speech in Washington, D.C., by the prominent writer and orator Robert Ingersoll. 

According to newspaper reports, Ingersoll was introducing another speaker, who was scheduled to give a lecture on Lincoln, at an unspecified “auditorium” in the nation’s capital. During the course of his introductory remarks (which were printed in full by the press), Ingersoll said:

“… If you want to know the difference between an orator and a speaker, read the oration of Lincoln at Gettysburg, and then read the speech of Everett at the same place. One came from the heart, the other was born only of the voice. Lincoln’s speech will be remembered forever. Everett’s no man will read. It was like plucked flowers. [Applause]. 

“If you want to find out what a man is to the bottom, give him power. Any man can stand adversity — only a great man can stand prosperity. It is the glory of Abraham Lincoln that he never abused power only on the side of mercy. [Applause]. He was a perfectly honest man. When he had power, he used it in mercy …”

A modified version of those lines later appeared in published volumes of Ingersoll’s speeches and essays. For example, in his 1895 “Abraham Lincoln, a Lecture,” he wrote:

“Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never abused it, except on the side of mercy.”

The exact same formulation of words appeared in Volume 3 of the 12-volume “Works of Robert G. Ingersoll,” which was published in 1902, three years after the well-known orator’s death. ...

“Life exists somewhere between effort and surrender.”

quoted from an interview with Tom Brady: 

What’s the one sentence that sums up your philosophy of life?

I heard a really good saying, “Life exists somewhere between effort and surrender.” We think we’re always in control. And what we realize in life is that we’re so little in control of things.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tom-brady-on-the-one-game-hed-like-to-do-over-11632918639 accessed 10/2/2021

quoted:

"Life is a balance between what we can control and what we cannot. I am learning to live between effort and surrender."

~ Danielle Orner

http://soulscapecoaching.com/effort-or-surrender/  accessed 10/2/2021

'God is good'

https://www.today.com/parents/babies/barbara-bush-gave-birth-first-child-daughter-cora-rcna2463

The place where Barbara Bush gave birth was an unexpected family tribute

Sept. 30, 2021, 12:21 PM EDT / Source: TODAY

By Scott Stump

Barbara Bush was supposed to give birth to her first child in New York City, but it turned out her baby daughter was delivered in a place that was meant to be.

Bush's twin sister, Jenna Bush Hager, shared on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna Thursday that after Barbara's water broke six weeks early, she gave birth to her daughter, Cora Georgia Coyne, at the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital in Portland, Maine, on Monday. . . .

Barbara and her husband, Craig Coyne, had planned on having their first child at a New York City hospital, but baby Cora had other plans while they were staying at the family's longtime home in Kennebunkport, Maine.  . . .

Jenna, who has three children of her own, also described the moment she found out the baby was coming early.

"I woke up to a text message on Monday morning," she said. "I burst into tears, I was frantic, I woke up (husband) Henry (Hager). He was like, 'What?' I’m like, ‘She’s in labor!'"

Cora's middle name of Georgia is a tribute to their father, former President George W. Bush, who helped calm Jenna down after she found out that Barbara was in labor.

"One of the things that I think is so cool about my parents is all my dad wrote back to the text: 'God is good,'" Jenna said. "And it all of a sudden calmed me. I was kind of frantic. I was nervous." . . .

in the 1810s, the state became the church on Sunday in Washington

Though [Thomas] Jefferson explained that the First Amendment "built a wall of separation between church and state," he still publicly practiced his religion. 

In fact, historical experts explained how Jefferson attended public church services every Sunday in the Capitol building and permitted church services to be held in executive office buildings. 

"On a Sunday in Washington in … the 1810s, you would have had services going on in all branches of government," Library of Congress historian James Hutson said. "You could actually say that the state became the church on Sunday in Washington and so, some of these arguments we’re having today about religion in the public square are certainly not grounded in the historical record."

 https://www.foxnews.com/media/one-nation-under-god-fox-nation  accessed 9-30-2021

‘one nation under God’

"If we ever forget that we’re ‘one nation under God,’ then we will be a nation going under." 

~ President Ronald Reagan

"There is no passion to be found playing small"

“There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than what you’re capable of living."

~ Nelson Mandela

"What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other?"

 "What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other?"

~ George Eliot (pen name of Mary Ann Evans, 1819–1880), Middlemarch

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."

~ Seneca, Roman Stoic philosopher

“There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.”

“There is no saint without a past,
no sinner without a future.”

~ St. Augustine of Hippo

"The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action."

"The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action."

~ Alexander Graham Bell

"A Scottish-born American inventor, Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) is famous for introducing the world to the telephone. In 1876, after placing his first phone call to his assistant in the next room, Bell filed what is widely thought to be the most valuable patent in history. With this quote, the inventor extols the virtue of action, reminding us that no failure remains such, if we keep working to turn it into a success."

quote from Inspiring Quotes email, August 27, 2021

"Mask, vax and just keep livin'."

"Mask, vax and just keep livin'."

"The "virus doesn't give a d*** who you voted for."

~ Matthew McConaughey 

The lazy boy works hardest in the end

"Teachers will tell you that the laziest boy in the class is the one who works hardest in the end. They mean this. If you give two boys, say, a proposition in geometry to do, the one who is prepared to take trouble will try to understand it. The lazy boy will try to learn it by heart because, for the moment, that needs less effort. 

But six months later, when they are preparing for an exam, that lazy boy is doing hours and hours of miserable drudgery over things the other boy understands, and positively enjoys, in a few minutes. Laziness means more work in the long run."

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book 4, chapter 8, “Is Christianity Hard or Easy?”

“There is someone I love, even though I don’t approve of what he does."

“There is someone I love,
 even though I don’t approve of what he does.
There is someone I accept,
 though some of his thoughts and actions revolt me.
There is someone I forgive,
 though he hurts the people I love the most.
That person is me.”

paraphrased quote of C.S. Lewis, by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity, 2007, page 198.

Kinnaman and Lyons may have been paraphrasing C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, "Forgiveness", Book 3, Chapter 7, beginning at the end of the fourth paragraph.

Posted by William OFlaherty in "Confirming Quotations," 
http://essentialcslewis.com/2017/05/06/ccslq-35-someone-i-love/

C.S. Lewis on forgiving the inexcusable

To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.  This is hard.  It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single person great injury.  But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life -- to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son -- how can we do it?

Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say our prayers each night "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us."  We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse is to refuse God's mercy for ourselves.

~ C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, "On Forgiveness"

ESSAY ON FORGIVENESS BY C.S. LEWIS

By Macmillan Publishing Company, Inc. N.Y. 1960

We say a great many things in church without thinking of what we are saying. For instance, we say in the Creed ” I believe in the forgiveness of sins.” I had been saying it for several years before I asked myself why it was in the Creed. At first sight it seems hardly worth putting in. “If one is a Christian,” I thought ” of course one believes in the forgiveness of sins. It goes without saying.”

But the people who compiled the Creed apparently thought that this was a part of our belief which we needed to be reminded of every time we went to church. And I have begun to see that, as far as I am concerned, they were right. To believe in the forgiveness of sins is not so easy as I thought.

Real belief in it is the sort of thing that easily slips away if we don’t keep on polishing it up.

We believe that God forgives us our sins; but also that He will not do so unless we forgive other people their sins against us. There is no doubt about the second part of this statement.

It is in the Lord’s Prayer, it was emphatically stated by our Lord. If you don’t forgive you will not be forgiven. No exceptions to it. He doesn’t say that we are to forgive other people’s sins, provided they are not too frightful, or provided there are extenuating circumstances, or anything of that sort. We are to forgive them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated. If we don’t we shall be forgiven none of our own.

Now it seems to me that we often make a mistake both about God’s forgiveness of our sins and about the forgiveness we are told to offer to other people’s sins. Take it first about God’s forgiveness, I find that when I think I am asking God to forgive me I am often in reality asking Him to do something quite different.

I am asking him not to forgive me but to excuse me. But there is all the difference in the world between forgiving and excusing. Forgiveness says, “Yes, you have done this thing, but I accept your apology; I will never hold it against you and everything between us two will be exactly as it was before.”

If one was not really to blame then there is nothing to forgive. In that sense forgiveness and excusing are almost opposites. Of course, in dozens of cases, either between God and man, or between one man and another, there may be a mixture of the two.

Part of what at first seemed to be the sins turns out to be really nobody’s fault and is excused; the bit that is left over is forgiven. If you had a perfect excuse, you would not need forgiveness; if the whole of your actions needs forgiveness, then there was no excuse for it. But the trouble is that what we call “asking God’s forgiveness” very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses. What leads us into this mistake is the fact that there usually is some amount of excuse, some “extenuating circumstances.”

We are so very anxious to point these things out to God that we are apt to forget the very important thing; that is, the bit left over, the bit which excuses don’t cover, the bit which is inexcusable but not, thank God, unforgivable. And if we forget this, we shall go away imagining that we have repented and been forgiven when all that has really happened is that we have satisfied ourselves without own excuses. They may be very bad excuses; we are all too easily satisfied about ourselves.

There are two remedies for this danger. One is to remember that God knows all the real excuses very much better than we do. If there are real “extenuating circumstances” there is no fear that He will overlook them. Often He must know many excuses that we have never even thought of, and therefore humble souls will, after death, have the delightful surprise of discovering that on certain occasions they sinned much less than they thought.

All the real excusing He will do. What we have got to take to Him is the inexcusable bit, the sin. We are only wasting our time talking about all the parts which can be excused. When you go to a Dr. you show him the bit of you that is wrong – say, a broken arm. It would be a mere waste of time to keep on explaining that your legs and throat and eyes are all right. You may be mistaken in thinking so, and anyway, if they are really right, the doctor will know that.

The second remedy is really and truly to believe in the forgiveness of sins. A great deal of our anxiety to make excuses comes from not really believing in it, from thinking that God will not take us to Himself again unless He is satisfied that some sort of case can be made out in our favor. But that is not forgiveness at all.

Real forgiveness means looking steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after all allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its horror, dirt, meanness, and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man who has done it.

When it comes to a question of our forgiving other people, it is partly the same and partly different. It is the same because, here also forgiving does not mean excusing. Many people seem to think it does. They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that there was really no cheating or bullying. But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive.

The difference between this situation and the one in which you are asking God’s forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily, in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough. As regards my own sins it is a safe bet that the excuses are not really so good as I think; as regards other men’s sins against me it is a safe bet that the excuses are better than I think.

One must therefore begin by attending to everything which may show that the other man was not so much to blame as we thought. But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine per cent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one per cent of guilt that is left over. To excuse, what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness.

To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life – to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son – How can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night “Forgive our trespasses* as we forgive those that trespass against us.”

We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.

*Trespasses=offences, being offended or offending.

https://lindawillows.com/2020/02/18/real-forgiveness-essay-by-c-s-lewis-gods-mercy-forgive-our-trespasses/

C.S. Lewis on forgiving seventy times seven

There is no use talking as if forgiveness were easy. We all know the old joke, ‘You’ve given up smoking once; I’ve given it up a dozen times.’ In the same way I could say of a certain man, ‘Have I forgiven him for what he did that day? I’ve forgiven him more times than I can count.’ 

For we find that the work of forgiveness has to be done over and over again. We forgive, we mortify our resentment; a week later some chain of thought carries us back to the original offence and we discover the old resentment blazing away as if nothing had been done about it at all. We need to forgive our brother seventy times seven not only for 490 offences but for one offence.

~ C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms

“If you feel like blowing up at someone, wait at least 10 minutes, and then don’t do it.”

quotes from:

June Morris Created a No-Frills Airline

https://www.wsj.com/articles/utah-travel-agent-created-a-no-frills-airline-11628085600

Mr. Neeleman remembered a management tip she gave him: “If you feel like blowing up at someone, wait at least 10 minutes, and then don’t do it.”

June Morris also advised him:  "Avoid any signs of arrogance."

Morris Air was serving more than 20 Western cities when Southwest agreed to buy the carrier in 1993.

Succeed at something else

If you can't succeed at one thing, use everything you've learned to succeed at something else.

~ Truthful Grace 

Focus means saying no to the hundred other good ideas. Pick one carefully.

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. 

I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”

~ Steve Jobs, Apple Inc.

Ten Commandments for People over 50

TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR PEOPLE OVER 50

#1 - Talk to yourself. There are times you need expert advice.

#2 - “In Style” are the clothes that still fit.

#3 - The biggest lie you tell yourself is, “I don't need to write that down. I'll remember it.”

#4 - “On time” is when you get there.

#5 - It would be wonderful if we could put ourselves in the dryer for ten minutes, then come out wrinkle-free and three sizes smaller.

#6 - Lately, you've noticed people your age are so much older than you.

#7 - Growing old should have taken longer.

#8 - Aging has slowed you down, but it hasn't shut you up.

#9 - You still haven't learned to act your age and hope you never will. 

#10 - “One for the road” means peeing before you leave the house.

"Just cause it’s bad doesn’t mean it’s not worth it.”

USA TODAY Sports

Opinion: Caeleb Dressel knows pressure after winning 5 gold medals: ' I probably lost 10 pounds'

Christine Brennan, USA TODAY

Sun, August 1, 2021, 3:36 AM·

https://sports.yahoo.com/opinion-caeleb-dressel-knows-pressure-073600602.html

TOKYO — Caeleb Dressel, shirtless and exhausted, stood with his three U.S. men’s medley relay teammates for one last time in the mixed zone at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. . . .

“This is not easy, not an easy week at all,” he said. “Some parts were extremely enjoyable. I would say the majority of them were not. You can’t sleep right, you can’t nap, shaking all the time. I probably lost 10 pounds. I’m going to weigh myself and eat some food when I get back. It’s a lot of stress we put on the body.”

But Dressel said he still relished it.

“It’s not the most enjoyable process but it is worth it. Every part of it is worth it. Just cause it’s bad doesn’t mean it’s not worth it.”

"It is obscene"

 In a June essay, celebrated Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie mourned the decline of good-faith conversation, especially online. 

https://www.chimamanda.com/news_items/it-is-obscene-a-true-reflection-in-three-parts/

quote:

"In certain young people today like these two from my writing workshop, I notice what I find increasingly troubling: a cold-blooded grasping, a hunger to take and take and take, but never give; a massive sense of entitlement; an inability to show gratitude; an ease with dishonesty and pretension and selfishness that is couched in the language of self-care; an expectation always to be helped and rewarded no matter whether deserving or not; language that is slick and sleek but with little emotional intelligence; an astonishing level of self-absorption; an unrealistic expectation of puritanism from others; an over-inflated sense of ability, or of talent where there is any at all; an inability to apologize, truly and fully, without justifications; a passionate performance of virtue that is well executed in the public space of Twitter but not in the intimate space of friendship.

I find it obscene.

There are many social-media-savvy people who are choking on sanctimony and lacking in compassion, who can fluidly pontificate on Twitter about kindness but are unable to actually show kindness. People whose social media lives are case studies in emotional aridity. People for whom friendship, and its expectations of loyalty and compassion and support, no longer matter. People who claim to love literature – the messy stories of our humanity – but are also monomaniacally obsessed with whatever is the prevailing ideological orthodoxy. People who demand that you denounce your friends for flimsy reasons in order to remain a member of the chosen puritan class.

People who ask you to ‘educate’ yourself while not having actually read any books themselves, while not being able to intelligently defend their own ideological positions, because by ‘educate,’ they actually mean ‘parrot what I say, flatten all nuance, wish away complexity.’

People who do not recognize that what they call a sophisticated take is really a simplistic mix of abstraction and orthodoxy – sophistication in this case being a showing-off of how au fait they are on the current version of ideological orthodoxy.

People who wield the words ‘violence’ and ‘weaponize’ like tarnished pitchforks. People who depend on obfuscation, who have no compassion for anybody genuinely curious or confused. Ask them a question and you are told that the answer is to repeat a mantra. Ask again for clarity and be accused of violence. (How ironic, speaking of violence, that it is one of these two who encouraged Twitter followers to pick up machetes and attack me.)

And so we have a generation of young people on social media so terrified of having the wrong opinions that they have robbed themselves of the opportunity to think and to learn and to grow.

I have spoken to young people who tell me they are terrified to tweet anything, that they read and re-read their tweets because they fear they will be attacked by their own. The assumption of good faith is dead. What matters is not goodness but the appearance of goodness. We are no longer human beings. We are now angels jostling to out-angel one another. God help us. It is obscene."

"When you run into something interesting, drop everything else and study it."

"When you run into something interesting, drop everything else and study it."

​Skinner suggests taking things moment by moment and following whims to reach the best results. This approach can work wonders in everyday life as well. Following where our passion and curiosity may lead can open up a world of creativity and inspiration. We may even discover something completely new and fascinating just by breaking free of routine.

~ B. F. Skinner, Harvard professor and psychologist,
1956 issue of the medical journal “The American Psychologist” 

quote from Inspiring Quotes email, July 27, 2021

“Consider yourself blessed if you have a passion for anything. Passion is a way of organizing your life..."

“Consider yourself blessed if you have a passion for anything. Passion is a way of organizing your life; otherwise you go off in 20 different directions, and in the end, you wonder what you have.”

~ Fred E. Budinger Jr.

Los Angeles Times
A riddle in the California desert, and one man’s fight to solve it and save himself
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-07-14/a-riddle-in-the-california-desert-and-one-mans-fight-to-save-it
YERMO, Calif.

 

"The Difference between an ordeal and an adventure is your attitude."

"The Difference between an ordeal and an adventure is your attitude."

~ Monika Petrillo, Flyabout [2006]

Action beats deliberation

 "bias towards action" - you get further by jumping at chances and learning from experiments than you do laboriously planning
~ Amazon founder Jeff Bezos 

"Action beats deliberation."
~ executive coach Tracy Wilk

"Simply start. Don't wait to 'know more', don't wait for the perfect job, don't wait to know what you want to do before you even start."
~ researcher Dalili Bonomi

quoted from:

Inc. 
LinkedIn Asked People to Give Advice to Their 20-Year-Old Self. The Same Lesson Came Up Again and Again
Jessica Stillman, 7/22/2021
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/linkedin-asked-people-to-give-advice-to-their-20-year-old-self-the-same-lesson-came-up-again-and-again/ar-AAMqNRm

“Before you speak, listen. . . ."

“Before you speak, listen.
Before you write, think.
Before you spend, earn.
Before you invest, investigate.
Before you criticize, wait.
Before you pray, forgive.
Before you quit, try.
Before you retire, save.
Before you die, give.”

~ William Arthur Ward, motivational writer
(December 17, 1921–March 30, 1994) 

"completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble”

“Jesus promised his disciples three things—that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble.”

~ William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of Luke

God's Agape Love for You: Unconquerable Benevolence

 “Agape, the Christian word, means unconquerable benevolence.
It means that, no matter what people may do to us by way of insult or injury or humiliation, we will never seek anything else but their highest good.”

~ William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible Series: The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians

agentic: decisive, assertive, competitive

Paternity leave: The hidden barriers keeping men at work

By Josie Cox, 12th July 2021, accessed July 18, 2021

quote:

Thekla Morgenroth, a research fellow in Social and Organisational Psychology at the University of Exeter, UK, says that gender stereotypes have persisted, even though gender roles at work have changed substantially in the last few decades, with much higher numbers of women entering and staying in the workforce. 

“Women are no longer seen as less competent than men, but women continue to be seen as more communal – warm, nurturing and caring – than men and, in turn, as more suitable for roles that require these attributes such as childcare,” they explain. “Men, on the other hand, continue to be seen as more agentic: decisive, assertive, competitive.”

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210712-paternity-leave-the-hidden-barriers-keeping-men-at-work

-------------------------------------------------------------

a·gen·tic   (ā-jen'tik)

Denotes self-directed actions aimed at personal development or personally chosen goals.

Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing © Farlex 2012

https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/agentic

"To Help Haiti, Stop Trying to Save It"

 OPINION

"To Help Haiti, Stop Trying to Save It"

By Bret Stephens

Treating people as helpless has a way of making them so.

New York Times The Morning email, July 13, 2021

"I’m Not Just a Kid Who Did Something Wrong"

 "I’m Not Just a Kid Who Did Something Wrong"

~ Emmanuel Durón, 19, Edinburg, Texas

New York Times The Morning email, July 13, 2021

A high school football player in Texas became infamous when he did the unthinkable, leveling a referee. With grace from the ref, the player is seeking a new start.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/12/sports/texas-high-school-football-assault-referee.html

"you're as good as the best thing you've ever done"

 "Remember, you're as good as the best thing you've ever done."

~ Billy Wilder, filmmaker and screenwriter

"we are rarely as good as the best thing we've done, but neither are we as bad as the worst thing we've ever done"

 quotes:

We should judge people - political candidates, our neighbors, or even ourselves - in more nuanced ways than we typically do. Singular acts, good or bad, should be taken seriously, but they should not typically bear the sole burden of defining our judgments about the moral worth of anyone. . . .

I am not saying anything goes. There are folks who habitually say stupid or offensive things. There are folks who relentlessly hurt others. And there are folks with whom we disagree across the board. I am not saying that we should overlook these patterns. I am simply recommending that we judge the particulars in terms of the bigger picture of someone's life as it has been lived.

In sum, at least in the moral domain, we are rarely as good as the best thing we've done, but neither are we as bad as the worst thing we've ever done.

~ Christopher Peterson Ph.D.

Are We as Bad as the Worst Thing We’ve Ever Done?

The Good Life blog, Posted January 20, 2012

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-good-life/201201/are-we-bad-the-worst-thing-we-ve-ever-done

“Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done”

“Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done” 

~ Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

"you feel like you're alone, but people can relate"

Hidden haiku from an interview with Jeanie Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers owner and a standup comic: 

“These things happen and /
 you feel like you’re alone, but /
 people can relate.”

New York Times The Morning email, July 13, 2021

"We've got to get on together and we've got to look after what we've got."

David Makay, the Scottish spaceman piloting Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic flight, says we've got to get on together and we’ve got to care for what we have - it is a small planet:

"But when you're up in space you're looking directly down... the colours on the ground look incredibly vivid and in contrast to this incredibly dark sky.

"And then on top of all that you see so much of the curvature of the Earth and you get a sense of scale of the planet and you realise it's not very big."

He said: "It's the remoteness and fragility and our utter dependence on the thinness of the atmosphere. 

"I would like to think that some of the outcomes are people will take more care of what they're doing, be much more open minded about who we are all - we're all one human race and we're all sharing this small planet that's so remote. 

"There's nothing else practically habitable within reach. We've got to get on together and we've got to look after what we've got."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-57786412  accessed 7/11/2021

Everything You Love

 "Everything you love comes from God.

When it dies, it returns to God.

God knows that you need love,
so he will send love back to you
in another form."

~ Truthful Grace, July 12, 2021

Home

"Home is not where you were born.
Home is where all your attempts to escape cease."

~ Omar Taher, writer

"Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in."

~ Robert Frost, The Death of the Hired Man

“Winter is the time for comfort,
for good food and warmth,
for the touch of a friendly hand
and for a talk beside the fire:
it is the time for home.”

~ Edith Sitwell

“After all," Anne had said to Marilla once, "I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.”

~ Lucy Maud Montgomery,  Anne of Avonlea

“We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there.”

~ Pascal Mercier, Night Train to Lisbon

“There is nothing more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.”

~ Homer, The Odyssey

“What is home? My favorite definition is 'a safe place,' a place where one is free from attack, a place where one experiences secure relationships and affirmation. It's a place where people share and understand each other. Its relationships are nurturing. The people in it do not need to be perfect; instead, they need to be honest, loving, supportive, recognizing a common humanity that makes all of us vulnerable.”

~ Gladys Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life

“Home isn't where you're from, it's where you find light when all grows dark.”

~ Pierce Brown, Golden Son

"I close myself off from so much of the world"

“Dandelions remind me of the way I close myself off from so much of the world, either because it’s too painful to see or feel, or because when I am open to people, the ridicule comes.”

~ Dara McAnulty, “Diary of a Young Naturalist,” on the natural world around his home and on his autism

In 2020, “Diary of a Young Naturalist” won the Wainwright Prize, Britain’s biggest award for nature writing.

from The New York Times "Evening Briefing" email, July 8, 2021

"life is a trouble”

“Well, I think life is a trouble”. 

~ Queen Elizabeth II, July, 2021

https://twitter.com/i/status/1413080022265499651 

"Success is a collection of problems solved."

"Success is a collection of problems solved."

~ I. M. Pei

quote from Inspiring Quotes email, July 5, 2021:

As an internationally renowned architect, I. M. Pei was well-versed in the power of problem-solving. Two of his most famous building designs, the John F. Kennedy Library and the Hancock Tower in Boston, faced numerous issues along the way, but Pei felt that such challenging projects helped toughen him as an architect, and would stand the test of time. Pei’s words ... remind us that our satisfaction at the finish line actually springs from the hardships we overcame along the way.

"Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime’s work, but it’s worth the effort."

"Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime’s work, but it’s worth the effort."

~ Fred Rogers, creator and host of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” which ran from 1968 to 2001. 

quote from Inspiring Quotes email, July 2, 2021:

A major theme of his show was helping kids to understand their emotions, to know that “feelings are mentionable and manageable.” But Mister Rogers also acknowledged that it can take a lifetime to understand and love ourselves for the complicated, wonderful human beings that we are.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

~ President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the throes of the Great Depression

"a wound collector in the Oppression Olympics"

 Asra Nomani, vice president of Parents Defending Education, describing a "supremist":

"Her wound is bigger than their wound—a wound collector in the Oppression Olympics."

"A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for."

"A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for."

~ John A. Shedd, 1928

"Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality."

"Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality."

~ Carl Sagan

quote from Inspiring Quotes email, June 26, 2021:

American astronomer Carl Sagan was known and much beloved for his research on extraterrestrial life and the cosmos, which he shared with the public in his earnest, enthusiastic manner on his 1980 TV show “Cosmos,” the most widely watched series in the history of American public television. 

In his book "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark," Sagan noted that even the simplest scientific concept, fully grasped, can elicit a spiritual experience. “The very act of understanding is a celebration of joining, merging, even if on a modest scale, with the magnificence of the cosmos,” he wrote. “When we recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual.”

"There’s a wall between you and what you want and you got to leap it."

"There’s a wall between you and what you want and you got to leap it."

Bob Dylan
from song “The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar,” album “Shot of Love,” 1981

quote from Inspiring Quotes email, June 25, 2021

"I can’t go on. I will go on.”

"You must go on.

I can’t go on.

I will go on.”

~ Samuel Beckett, The Unnamable

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."

~ Edith Wharton

quote from Inspiring Quotes email, June 22, 2021:

This beautiful line comes from Edith Wharton’s long poem “Vesalius in Zante (1564)". The speaker of the poem is Inquisition-era anatomist Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), who left Spain to travel to the East in his fifties, when he could no longer bear to live and work in a society that forbade his scientific research. On his way home from Jerusalem, Vesalius was shipwrecked on the Greek island of Zante, where he fell ill and died, never to return home.

In the poet’s imagining, the censored scientist finds consolation at the end of his life in the faith that others will carry on the work he was prevented from: “What one man failed to speak, another finds / Another word for,” Wharton writes. In other words, carrying on the “light” of another — be it ideas, joy, love, or inspiration — can be just as valuable as creating it yourself.

"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."

"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."

~ Marie Curie

quote from Inspiring Quotes email, June 20, 2021:

Marie Curie is best known for her scientific breakthroughs in radiation and radioactivity, which won her two Nobel Prizes. Even after her husband and research partner Pierre Curie died, Marie carried on their work, introducing the first X-ray machines to the frontlines of World War I. 

She spoke these brave words upon discovering that her long-term exposure to radiation during her research had given her leukemia. Her rational outlook applies not just to science and mortality, but also to life: If we approach the unknown without fear, we’re more likely to gain understanding we didn’t have before.

"If today were the last day of your life, would you want to be doing what you're doing?"

Inc.
Steve Jobs Knew Accepting This Brutal Truth Was Essential for a Truly Successful Life
Jessica Stillman 6/16/2021

quote:

every morning Steve Jobs would look in the mirror and ask himself, "If today were the last day of your life, would you want to be doing what you're doing?"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careers/steve-jobs-knew-accepting-this-brutal-truth-was-essential-for-a-truly-successful-life/ar-AAL6o2p

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

 "Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

~ Mahatma Gandhi

Political Issues at Church

"The way [Christians] fight each other here on earth, it’s going to be kind of awkward when they see each other in heaven. They won’t be able to fight anymore. They’ll probably just shrug and say, 'ok, let’s have a potluck.'”

~ Drew Dyck, Contributing Editor,
Church Humor Newsletter (email), Thursday, June 10, 2021,
christianitytoday.com

Love takes off the masks ...

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/177066-love-takes-off-the-masks-that-we-fear-we-cannot

Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without
and know we cannot live within. 

I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense
but as a state of being, or a state of grace -
not in the infantile American sense of being made happy
but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.

~ James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

How Venus Williams copes with the press

Venus Williams - her response to the uproar surrounding Naomi Osaka’s press boycott at the French Open:

HuffPost quote: 

During a press conference after her first-round loss to Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova, Williams shared her own strategy for coping with the press throughout her career.

“For me personally, how I cope, how I deal with it, was that I know every single person asking me a question can’t play as well as I can and never will,” the 40-year-old said. “So no matter what you say, or what you write, you’ll never light a candle to me.”

“That’s how I deal with it. But each person deals with it differently,” she added.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/venus-williams-naomi-osaka_n_60b6b27ee4b001ebd46b3042

“Do you love me?”

In a famous Hasidic story, a rabbi asks his disciple: “Do you love me?”

To which the disciple replies: “Of course I love you!”

The rabbi continues. “Do you know what causes me pain?” he asks.

“Rabbi, how can I know what causes you pain?”

To which the rabbi responds: “If you do not know what causes me pain, how can you say that you love me?”

(from Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin)

quotes on education

 Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.

~ B.F. Skinner

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.

~ Vernon Law [baseball player] in Sports Legends on Success

My idea of education is to unsettle the minds of the young and inflame their intellects. 

~ Robert Maynard Hutchins

It is love that asks, that seeks, that knocks, that finds, and that is faithful to what it finds. 

~ St. Augustine

(from Rev. Dr. Kang Na, Westminster College)

“Cooking is ❤️ made visible.”

“Cooking is ❤️ made visible.” 

~ KitchenAid email

"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him."

 "The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him." 

~ G.K. Chesterton

"I got 99 problems, but Romans 8:1"

 "I got 99 problems, but Romans 8:1"

~ Josh Howerton, Lakepointe Church member, Rockwall, Texas
@howertonjosh
May 16, 2021

quoted in May 20, 2021 Church Humor Newsletter <newsletter@e.christianitytoday.com>   

(Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,)

The Reality Behind the Dream of Total Freedom

"The inside joke about freedom—one that early settlers understood perfectly well and that this man would have found out soon enough—is that you’re always trading obedience to one thing for obedience to another."

The Reality Behind the Dream of Total Freedom
A walking trip with friends reveals the deeply American appeal of independence—and the truth about how much we need one another.
By Sebastian Junger
https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/the-reality-behind-the-dream-of-total-freedom-11620919592
May 13, 2021 11:26 am ET

—This essay is adapted from Mr. Junger’s new book, “Freedom,” which will be published May 18 by Simon & Schuster.

When your child dies

... You know, my encouragement to the parents is

it is hard, and could take years and years,

but if you want to get close to your child,

get close to God. Your child is with God.

~ Victoria Osteen

Joel and Victoria Osteen on coping with tragedy

TRANSCRIPT Published December 17, 2012, 

Last Update January 8, 2015

https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/joel-and-victoria-osteen-on-coping-with-tragedy

Let's try to eliminate the afters...

 Email:

Subject: So true

 

Barely the day started and... it's already six in the evening.

Barely arrived on Monday and it's already Friday.

.. and the month is already over.

.. and the year is almost over.

.. and already 40, 50 or 60 years of our lives have passed.

.. and we realize that we lost our parents, friends.

and we realize it's too late to go back...

So... Let's try, despite everything, to enjoy the remaining time...

Let's keep looking for activities that we like...

Let's put some color in our grey...

Let's smile at the little things in life that put balm in our hearts.

And despite everything, we must continue to enjoy with serenity this time we have left.

Let's try to eliminate the afters...

I'm doing it after...

I'll say after...

I'll think about it after...

We leave everything for later like ′′ after ′′ is ours.

Because what we don't understand is that:

Afterwards, the coffee gets cold...

afterwards, priorities change...

Afterwards, the charm is broken...

afterwards, health passes...

Afterwards, the kids grow up...

Afterwards parents get old...

Afterwards, promises are forgotten...

afterwards, the day becomes the night...

afterwards life ends...

And then it's often too late....

So... Let's leave nothing for later...

Because still waiting see you later, we can lose the best moments,

the best experiences,

best friends,

the best family...

The day is today... The moment is now...

We are no longer at the age where we can afford to postpone what needs to be done right away.

So let's see if you have time to read this message and then share it.

Or maybe you'll leave it for "later"..

“Inch by inch, anything’s a cinch.”

 “Inch by inch, anything’s a cinch.”

~ Dr. Robert Schuler

"Talent is universal, but opportunity is not."

"Talent is universal, but opportunity is not."

~ Nicholas Kristof,
New York Times, Sunday, May 9, 2021

"Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always."

"Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always."

~ Robin Williams

Leslie Robison: eight options to say no, with a bit of advice

from Leslie Robison's coaching and consulting blog:

Eight options to say no, with a bit of advice

https://www.masteryconsulting.net/post/yes-because-i-can-t-say-no

Here are eight options to say no, with a bit of advice: only the first four work to your advantage. Notice none of them offer a reason for declining. It’s your choice to explain your decision or not. 

1. No.

2. No, thanks.

3. Thank you for asking, but I can’t.

4. Maybe next time. 

5. Absolutely not! 

6. I would never do that!

7. Are you out of your mind? 

8. Not a snowballs’ chance in hell. 

Use them carefully, simply, and intentionally and protect your time, money, and peace of mind confidently.

On second thought, I already had plans for that time and money. Ask me another time. And thanks for asking. 

Leslie Robison, Coaching and Consulting

"the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces"

Isaiah 25:6–9 ^NRSV

⁶ On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
⁷ And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations;
⁸ he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
⁹ It will be said on that day,
Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

“May God in his mercy lead us through these times; but above all, may he lead us to himself.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a man who stood for Christ and against not just Hitler but also the Christendom of his day, penned this benediction from prison: “May God in his mercy lead us through these times; but above all, may he lead us to himself.” 

Diane Langberg, PhD
@DianeLangberg, https://twitter.com/DianeLangberg, Apr 11, 2021

"Kindness is the language the blind can see and the deaf can hear."

 "Kindness is the language the blind can see and the deaf can hear."

~ Mark Twain

"Some luck lies not in getting what you want but getting what you have . . . "

"Some luck lies not in getting what you want but getting what you have, which — once you take a good look — you may realize is what you would’ve wanted if you had only known. I’m not sure that sentence is grammatically correct but it’s true."

~ Garrison Keillor

"Tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire."

"Tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire."

~ Gustav Mahler
Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer and conductor, 1860-1911

"Most people do not admire enough."

"Admire as much as you can. Most people do not admire enough."

~ Vincent van Gogh, Dutch post-impressionist painter

Philosophy of Atheist Auguste Comte

 “Reorganisation, irrespectively of God or king, by the worship of Humanity, systematically adopted. Man’s only right is to do his duty. The Intellect should always be the servant of the Heart, and should never be its slave.“ 

—  Auguste Comte 
Title Page A General View of Positivism (1848, 1856)
Source: https://quotepark.com/authors/auguste-comte/

(note: Warren Buffet quoted Comte in in a 1985 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter regarding Berkshire’s failing textile businesses:  “I ignored Comte’s advice – ‘the intellect should be the servant of the heart, but not its slave’ – and believed what I preferred to believe.”)

“Nothing is destroyed until it is replaced.”

—  Auguste Comte
https://www.azquotes.com/author/3165-Auguste_Comte

“But now, I, August Comte, have discovered the truth. Therefore, there is no longer any need for freedom of thought or freedom of the press. I want to rule and to organize the whole country.”

—  Auguste Comte
https://www.azquotes.com/author/3165-Auguste_Comte

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

~ Eleanor Roosevelt, philanthropist and First Lady of the United States from March 4, 1933, to April 12, 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms in office

"It’s you who can change the world.”

 “When the whole world is silent,
even one voice becomes powerful.”

“Do not wait for someone else to come and speak for you.
It’s you who can change the world.”

~ Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girl's education advocate who, at the age of 17 in 2014, became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize after surviving an assassination attempt by the Taliban

“There is nothing the resurrection won’t cure.”

 “There is nothing the resurrection won’t cure.”

Rev. Dr. Timothy Keller, Hope in Times of Fear

One by one, our comrades slip away

From Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Wind, Sand, and Stars.

Saint-Exupery is best known for his book, The Little Prince. He flew in the 1920s and 1930s for what later became Air France. In those days, accidents were frequent. Saint-Exupery writes about the experience of showing up at the airfield and hearing that one more friend had died.

Bit by bit, nevertheless, it comes over us that we shall never again hear the laughter of our friend, that this one garden is forever locked against us. And at that moment begins our true mourning, which, though it may not be heartrending, is still slightly bitter. For nothing, in truth, can replace that companion. Old friends cannot be created out of hand. Nothing can match the treasure of common memories, of trials endured together, of quarrels and reconciliations and generous emotions. It is idle, having planted an acorn in the morning, to expect that afternoon to sit in the shade of the oak.

So life goes on. For years we plant the seed, we feel ourselves rich; and then come other years when time does its work and our plantation is made sparse and thin. One by one, our comrades slip away, deprive us of their shade. ⁴

⁴Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Wind, Sand, and Stars (London, UK: The Folio Society, 1990), 26.

'You can prove 'em right or you can prove 'em wrong."

Tom Brady reflects on his NFL Combine performance 17 years ago

abc, WCVB NewsCenter 5, FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Updated: 9:24 PM EST Mar 3, 2017

https://www.wcvb.com/article/tom-brady-reflects-on-his-nfl-combine-performance-17-years-ago/9090781

quote:

As many of the top prospects of the NFL Draft participate in the NFL Combine, a five-time Super Bowl champion offered some advice.

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady reflected back on his own Combine experience, and shared his thoughts with the participants.

“This is what they said about me then,” Brady wrote on Facebook. “Poor build, skinny, lacks great physical stature and strength, lacks mobility and ability to avoid the rush, lacks a really strong arm, can’t drive the ball downfield, does not throw a really tight spiral, system-type player who can get exposed if forced to ad lib, gets knocked down easily.”

Brady was selected with the 199th pick in the 2000 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots, and 17 years later, he is a five-time Super Bowl champion, four-time Super Bowl MVP and two-time NFL MVP.

“As Julian Edelman always reminds me… 'You can prove 'em right or you can prove 'em wrong,'" Brady wrote, as he wished the Combine participants the best in their performance.

"The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws."

 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53311867 

BBC News - US & Canada

Cancel culture: What unites young people against Obama and Trump

Published 7 July 2020

quote:

Obama: 'The world is messy'

Last October [2019], former President Barack Obama challenged cancel culture and the idea of being "woke" - a term describing being alert to injustices and what's going on in the community - saying change was complex.

"I get a sense among certain young people on social media that the way of making change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people," Mr. Obama said.

"The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws."

“Never let THEM define YOU‼️” @tb12sports

 “Never let THEM define YOU‼️” @tb12sports

~ Tom Brady, age 43, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, after winning Super Bowl LV held on February 7, 2021, as well as winning Super Bowl MVP

the only difference between an adventure and an ordeal

 “My daddy was a farmer. He used to say the only difference between an adventure and an ordeal is how you look at it.” 

~ Cindy, age 83, Feb. 17, 2021, on surviving the  storms, freezing weather, and power outages in Texas

“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”

 “There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”

~ Robert Graves, British historical novelist, classicist, and critic

Leon Morris - why I write

"I hate writing. Perhaps this is because I write so badly.

The tool I use most frequently is the waste paper basket. But I still write. Why I wonder? To be practical, money has something to do with it I imagine.

But for one so far from the bestseller lists there must be many easier ways of staying alive. I think the basic answer is that a writer must write. To write is difficult. Not to write is sheer agony. I don’t like agony, so I write. 

And I write in the hope that what I write will be of interest and of help to those who read. I write on biblical topics for these seem to me far and away the most significant. I hope that writing and these topics will bring writer & reader nearer to God."  

~ Leon Lamb Morris (1914–2006),
Australian New Testament scholar, Anglican priest, University of Cambridge PhD on The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross

“The pastor should love his people extravagantly.”

“The pastor should love his people extravagantly.”

~ Robert C. Anderson, The Effective Pastor: A Practical Guide to the Ministry
(Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1985), 365.

the eternal rules of order and right

"The propitious smiles of heaven cannot be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right that heaven itself has ordained."

~ George Washington

"our Lord is with us, protecting us and leading us into the fullness of joy"

 Do not accuse yourself that your tribulation and your woe is all your fault; for I do not want you to be immoderately depressed or sorrowful. For I tell you that whatever you do, you will have woe. . . . The remedy is that our Lord is with us, protecting us and leading us into the fullness of joy.

—Julian of Norwich (1342-1416?), Revelations of Divine Love, Long Text 77

the two arms of God

“When the Trinity turns toward the world, the Son and the Spirit become, in Irenaeus’s beautiful image, the two arms of God by which humanity was made and taken into God’s embrace.”  

Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996),  128.

“In his will is our peace.”

“In his will is our peace.”

― Dante, The Divine Comedy, Paradise

following quote from
https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/paradiso/paradiso-3/

The pilgrim’s question gives Piccarda the opportunity to explain that heaven is a place where one’s desire is always satisfied, where desire cannot possibly exceed the measure of what one has, and where it is always aligned with the will of the transcendent power. In other words, the souls of paradise are completely happy with the grace that is apportioned to them:

E ’n la sua volontade è nostra pace:
ell’è quel mare al qual tutto si move
ciò ch’ella cria o che natura face.
(Par. 3.85-87)

And in His will there is our peace: that sea
to which all beings move—the beings He
creates or nature makes—such is His will.

"You have the scriptures, which serve you not as maps but as a compass."

When, like Abraham, you are called to go out, not knowing where you are going: 

“You have the reality of the living Christ himself as your north star.
You have the scriptures, which serve you not as maps but as a compass.”

—Thomas W. Gillespie (1928-2011),

President of Princeton Theological Seminary 1983-2004,
June 2, 1986 commencement address

https://commons.ptsem.edu/id/02266

"It is impossible to mentally or socially enslave a Bible-reading people."

 "It is impossible to mentally or socially enslave a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom."

~ Horace Greeley (1811–1872), American newspaper publisher and politician

Pilate thought all truth was relative

 “Pilate was cynical; he thought that all truth was relative.  To many government officials, truth was whatever the majority of people agreed with or whatever helped advance their own personal power and political goals.
When there is no basis for truth, there is no basis for moral right and wrong.  Justice becomes whatever works or whatever helps those in power.
In Jesus and His Word we have a standard for truth and for our moral behavior.”

~ Mark 15 footnotes, Faithlife NIV Study Bible, Zondervan

"We'd love each other better, If we only understood."

 If We Only Understood

by Anonymous

Could we but draw back the curtains
That surround each other's lives,
See the naked heart and spirit,
Know what spur the action gives,
Often we should find it better
Purer than we judged we should,
We should love each other better,
If we only understood.

If we knew the cares and trials,
Knew the efforts all in vain,
And the bitter disappointment,
Understood the loss and gain—
Would the grim, eternal roughness
Seem—I wonder—just the same?
Should we help where now we hinder?
Should we pity where we blame?

Ah, we judge each other harshly,
Know not life's hidden force:
Knowing not the fount of action
Is less turbid at its source:
Seeing amid the evil
All the golden grain of good:
And we'd love each other better.
If we only understood.

https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/if-only-we-understood

"A friend you have to earn; enemies you get for nothing."

 "A friend you have to earn;
enemies you get for nothing."

~ Proverb

"Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles."

 "Wear a smile and have friends;
wear a scowl and have wrinkles.
What do we live for if not to
make the world less difficult for each other?"

"Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking."

~ George Eliot (1819-1880), British woman author

good friends or ardent enemies

 "As a matter of self-preservation,
a man needs good friends or ardent enemies,
for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task."

~ Diogenes

profile of heaven

 “My only sketch, profile of heaven, is a large blue sky, and larger than the biggest I have seen in June―and in it are my friends―every one of them.”

~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), American poet

A faithful friend is an image of God.

A faithful friend is an image of God.

~ French Proverb

‘Need’ now means wanting someone else’s money. ‘Greed’ means wanting to keep your own. ‘Compassion’ is when a politician arranges the transfer.

 American journalist and writer Joe Sobran (1946-2010) wrote in The Economics of Liberty (1990);

"In the current political vocabulary, ‘need’ means wanting to get someone else’s money.
‘Greed,’ which used to mean what “need” now means, has come to mean wanting to keep your own.
‘Compassion’ means the politician’s willingness to arrange the transfer.”

This has usually been condensed to:

“‘Need’ now means wanting someone else’s money.
‘Greed’ means wanting to keep your own.
‘Compassion’ is when a politician arranges the transfer.”

https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/need_now_means_wanting_someone_elses_money/

Singing Emily Dickinson's poems

 from Facebook:

Emily Dickinson's use of the common meter enables one to sing pretty much all of her poems to the tune of Gilligan's Island, The Yellow Rose of Texas, etc.

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me.
The Carriage held but just Ourselves,
And immortality.

~ Kerstin Schwandt
Sept. 24, 2019

Mine!

 From Abraham Kuyper’s speech to open the Free University in 1880 in Amsterdam, which he founded as an expression of this philosophy:

"There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!' " 

Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920)
Pastor, theologian, scholar, journalist, educator, and Prime Minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905.

Honor the Sabbath Day

 “Don’t feel totally, personally, irrevocably, eternally responsible for everything. That’s my job.”

~ God, as told to Dr. Bernie Siegel

"Its okay to feel it or think it, but don't show it or say it."

reader comment by James Trott about what we learn by losing in sports:

I have been fortunate enough to  help coach some fantastic young female athletes, and the motto has always been "its okay to feel it or think it, but don't show it or say it." Thought this article hits home as we all lose more than we win in everyday life.

https://www.wsj.com  accessed 1/14/2021

"My acquaintance with loss has sustained me during the stormy passages of my life . . ."

quote from Pat Conroy's book My Losing Season:

"My acquaintance with loss has sustained me during the stormy passages of my life when the pink slips came through the door, when the checks bounced at the bank, when I told my small children I was leaving their mother, when the despair caught up with me, when the dreams of suicide began feeling like love songs of release. It sustained me when my mother lay dying of leukemia, when my sister heard the ruthless voices inside her, and when my brother Tom sailed out into the starry night in Columbia, South Carolina, sailed from a fourteen story building and plunged screaming to his death, binding all of his family into his nightmare forever. Though I learned some things from the games we won that year, I learned much, much more from loss."

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

~ Albert Einstein

"You never let a serious crisis go to waste."

 "You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

Rahm Emanuel
Wall Street Journal, November 19, 2008.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mzcbXi1Tkk

"Never let a good crisis go to waste."

 Winston Churchill quotes:

"Never let a good crisis go to waste."

"You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer."

"If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law."

"We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." 

~ Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during WW II

You wanna fly?

You wanna fly, you got to give up the sh-t that weighs you down.

~ Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

Setting Boundaries

"The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say 'No' to almost everything."

~ Warren Buffett

"When we fail to set boundaries and hold people accountable, we feel used and mistreated. This is why we sometimes attack who they are, which is far more hurtful than addressing a behavior or a choice."

~ Brené Brown (2010). The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are," p.33, Simon and Schuster.

"You best teach people about healthy boundaries by you enforcing your healthy boundaries on them."

 ~ Bryant McGill, American author and speaker

"Whatever you are willing to put up with, is exactly what you will have."

~ Anonymous

"You get what you tolerate."

~ Henry Cloud

https://www.habitsforwellbeing.com/20-inspirational-quotes-on-boundaries/   as of 1/9/2021

“toxic loyalty culture”

A “toxic loyalty culture” prioritizes the leader's legacy over everything else, preserving the leader's power at the cost of its Christian witness.

Leaders must commit to accountability and total transparency to avoid corporate complicity and a "toxic loyalty culture.”

Sāi Wēng lost his horse

The Most Famous Chinese Horse Proverb

One of the most famous horse proverbs is 塞翁失馬 (Sāi Wēng Shī Mǎ) or Sāi Wēng lost his horse. The meaning of the proverb is only apparent when one is familiar with the accompanying story of Sāi Wēng, which begins with an old man who lived on the frontier:

Sāi Wēng lived on the border and he raised horses for a living. One day, he lost one of his prized horses. After hearing of the misfortune, his neighbor felt sorry for him and came to comfort him. But Sāi Wēng simply asked, “How could we know it is not a good thing for me?”

After a while, the lost horse returned and with another beautiful horse. The neighbor came over again and congratulated Sāi Wēng on his good fortune. But Sāi Wēng simply asked, “How could we know it is not a bad thing for me?”

One day, his son went out for a ride with the new horse. He was violently thrown from the horse and broke his leg. The neighbors once again expressed their condolences to Sāi Wēng, but Sāi Wēng simply said, “How could we know it is not a good thing for me?” 

Later, the Emperor’s army arrived at the village to recruit all able-bodied men to fight in the war. Because of his injury, Sāi Wēng’s son could not go off to war, and was spared from certain death.

"To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you."

 "To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you."

~ C. S. Lewis