The ultimate April fool joke

Everybody wants to have a goal—
    I gotta get to that goal,
        I gotta get to that goal,
            I gotta get to that goal.
                I can finally get to that goal.
Then you get to that goal,
    and then you gotta get to another goal.

But in between goals is a thing called life,
    that has to be lived and enjoyed—
        and if you don't, you're a fool.

                    Sid Caesar, New York Times interview

Poem: Recipe for Happiness in Khabarovsk or Anyplace

One grand boulevard with trees
with one grand café in sun
with strong black coffee in very small cups

One not necessarily very beautiful
man or woman who loves you

One fine day

                        Lawrence Ferlinghetti        

 

 

 

 

 

A fundamental impulse

We are a music-making species —
    always have been, always will be —
and music’s capacity to explore, express and address
    what it is to be human remains one of our greatest communal gifts…
We evolved by coming together around the fire every night,
    singing songs and telling stories —
        invariably, telling stories through singing songs.

That’s what our ancestors did;
    that’s how they made sense of the world and each other;
        that’s how they learned how to be.

It is an impulse that is still fundamental to who we are. 

   
    Clemency Burton-Hill
    Year of Wonder: Classical Music to Enjoy Day by Day

 

 

 

 

 

Do unto others

Spread love and understanding, Reacher said.

            Use force if necessary.

                        Lee Child, The Essential Jack Reacher

 

 

 

 

Poem excerpt: Turn on your light

The new era is already here:
Here the new time begins anew.
The new era happens every day,
Every day is a new world,
A new calendar.
All great moments, all great eras,
Are just every moment
And every day writ large.
Thousands of years of loving, failing, killing,
Creating, surprising, oppressing,
And thinking ought now to start
To bear fruit, to deliver their rich harvest.

Will you be at the harvest,
Among the gatherers of new fruits?
Then you must begin today to remake
Your mental and spiritual world,
And join the warriors and celebrants
Of freedom, realisers of great dreams.

You can't remake the world
Without remaking yourself.
Each new era begins within.
It is an inward event,
With unsuspected possibilities
For inner liberation.
We could use it to turn on
Our inward lights.
We could use it to use even the dark
And negative things positively.
We could use the new era
To clean our eyes,
To see the world differently,
To see ourselves more clearly.
Only free people can make a free world.
Infect the world with your light.
Help fulfill the golden prophecies.
Press forward the human genius.
Our future is greater than our past. 

                            Ben Okri

 

 

 

 

 

Tricks in my pocket

Yes, I have tricks in my pocket,
    I have things up my sleeve. 

But I am the opposite of a stage magician.

He gives you illusion
    that has the appearance of truth. 

I give you truth
    in the pleasant disguise of illusion.

        Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
        Born March 26, 1911 

 

 

 

 

 

Be a duck

I think the duck really is the perfect model of how to live:
    paddle as hard as you can beneath the surface,
        let everything else roll off your back,
            and have a little sense of humor about your appearance.

        Jerry Seinfeld, 92nd Street Y Conversation, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

Paradox

You have to cherish the world
    at the same time that you struggle to endure it.

            Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wayward puppy

Try looking at your mind as a wayward puppy
        that you are trying to paper train.
You don't drop-kick a puppy into the neighbor's yard
        every time it piddles on the floor.
You just keep bringing it back to the newspaper.

            Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

            March 23rd is National Puppy Day 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Useful enough

Nothing in this world is useless in the eyes of God.
    Not a leaf from a tree falls, not a hair from your head,
        not even an insect dies because it was of no use.
Everything has a reason to exist...
    Don’t try to be useful.
        Try to be yourself: that is enough,
            and that makes all the difference.
A life is never useless.
    Each soul that came down to Earth is here for a reason.

                                Paulo Coelho, Manuscript Found in Accra

 

 

 

 

 

Disturbing the peace

Most of us, no matter what we say,
        are walking in the dark,
                whistling in the dark.
Nobody knows what is going to happen to him
        from one moment to the next,
                or how one will bear it.
This is irreducible.
        And it's true of everybody.
Now, it is true that the nature of society is to create,
        among its citizens, an illusion of safety;
                but it is also absolutely true that the safety
                        is always necessarily an illusion.
Artists are here to disturb the peace.

            James Baldwin, 1961 interview with Studs Terkel