The second learning

You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and
compelling reason why we observe daylight-saving time.

    Dave Barry, 25 Things I Have Learned In 50 Years, #2

 

Promise

Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection
    not in books alone but in every leaf in spring time.

            Martin Luther, Watchwords for the Warfare of Life

 

 

 

Poem: The Point

The days, the days they break to fade.
What fills them I’ll forget.
Every touch and smell and taste.
This sun, about to set

can never last. It breaks my heart.
Each joy feels like a threat:
Although there’s beauty everywhere,
its shadow is regret.

Still, something in the coming dusk
whispers not to fret.
Don’t matter that we’ll lose today.
It’s not tomorrow yet.

        Kate Tempest 

Carpe diem

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

Jack London, Jack London’s Tales of Adventure

 

 

 

Supreme accomplishment

The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.

        Arnold J. Toynbee, Social Creativity Vol. 2 

 

 

 

 

Conspiracy theory

America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.

    John Updike, How to Love America and Leave it at the Same Time    

Way to go

If you believe that saying no will get you shot,
        well, what a fine way to go.

                Peter Block, The Answer to How is Yes

 

 

 

 

 

 

A way with words

If you have the words,
there's always a chance that you'll find the way.

        Seamus Heaney, Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney

 

 

 

 

 

Good and evil

Whatever good visits thee, it is of God;
    whatever evil visits thee is of thyself.

            Muhammad, The Koran

 

 

 

 

Poem: All That is Gold Does Not Glitter

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

            J.R.R. Tolkien

 

 

 

 

 

Rules

I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom.
I am free, no matter what rules surround me.
If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them;
if I find them too obnoxious, I break them.
I am free because I know that I alone
am morally responsible for everything I do.

        Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

 

 

 

 

Welcome, Spring

Every spring is the only spring,
        a perpetual astonishment.

                    Edith Pargeter, The Summer of the Danes

 

 

 

 

 

Cold comfort

You can take comfort in the likelihood that
what is now making you miserable will also pass away.

    Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy

 

 

 

 

Miracle cure

Doctors pour drugs, of which they know little,
    to cure diseases, of which they know less,
        into human beings, of whom they know nothing.

                    Attributed to Voltaire

 

 

 

 

 

Lyrics for St. Patrick's Day

Give Ireland back to the Irish
Don’t make them have to take it away
Give Ireland back to the Irish
Make Ireland Irish today

Great Britain you are tremendous
And nobody knows like me
But really what are you doin’
In the land across the sea

Tell me how would you like it
If on your way to work
You were stopped by Irish soldiers
Would you lie down do nothing
Would you give in or go berserk

Give Ireland back to the Irish
Don’t make them have to take it away
Give Ireland back to the Irish
Make Ireland Irish today

Great Britain and all the people
Say that all people must be free
Meanwhile back in Ireland
There’s a man who looks like me

And he dreams of God and country
And he’s feeling really bad
And he’s sitting in a prison
Should he lie down, do nothing
Should he give in or go mad

Give Ireland back to the Irish
Don’t make them have to take it away
Give Ireland back to the Irish
Make Ireland Irish today

    Paul and Linda McCartney 

God's preference

God prefers your health, and your obedience, to your penance.

        Teresa of Ávila, The Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus

 

 

 

 

On the ides of March

There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.

William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

 

 

 

 

Feelings, wo-o-o, feelings

There is not something or someone experiencing experience!
You do not feel feelings, think thoughts, or sense sensations
any more than you hear hearing, see sight, or smell smelling.
“I feel fine” means that a fine feeling is present.
It does not mean that there is one thing called an “I”
and another separate thing called a feeling,
so that when you bring them together this “I” feels the fine feeling.
There are no feelings but present feelings,
and whatever feeling is present is “I.”
No one ever found an “I” apart from some present experience,
or some experience apart from an “I”—
which is only to say that the two are the same thing.

        Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity

 

 

 

 

 

 

How much is enough?

After all, the only thing that is going to save mankind is if
enough people live their lives for something or someone other than themselves.

            Leon Uris, QB VII

 

 

 

 

 

Our brains are all wide awake these days

Nonsense wakes up the brain cells.

    Dr. Seuss, in The Los Angeles Times

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

True life

There is no true life.
Your true life is the one you end up with, whatever it may be.
You just do the best you can with what you've got.

    Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups

 

 

 

 

An interesting approach

When you make a mistake
    throw your hands in the air and say
        “HOW FASCINATING!”

                    Ben Zander, The Boston Musical Intelligencer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is it?

The Church is not a tradition.
    The Church is not the past.
        The Church is what we do next.

                Peter Straughan, Conclave [movie]

Poem: To March

Dear March, come in!
How glad I am!
I looked for you before.
Put down your hat —
You must have walked —
How out of breath you are!
Dear March, how are you?
And the rest?
Did you leave Nature well?
Oh, March, come right upstairs with me,
I have so much to tell!

I got your letter, and the birds';
The maples never knew
That you were coming, — I declare,
How red their faces grew!
But, March, forgive me —
And all those hills
You left for me to hue;
There was no purple suitable,
You took it all with you.

Who knocks? That April!
Lock the door!
I will not be pursued!
He stayed away a year, to call
When I am occupied.
But trifles look so trivial
As soon as you have come,
That blame is just as dear as praise
And praise as mere as blame. 

            Emily Dickinson

 

 

 

 

Wanna see a magic trick?

The human mind is like a kid who got a magic kit for Christmas: it only knows like four tricks. What looks like an infinite list of biases and heuristics is in fact just the same few sleights of hand done over and over again. Uncovering those tricks has been psychology’s greatest achievement. . .

Adam Mastroianni, Experimental History blog

Go here to read the entire post.

The simple truth

Truth is a hard master,
    and costly to serve,
        but it simplifies all problems.

                 Edith Pargeter, Brother Cadfael's Penance

 

 

 

 

Who's in charge here?

The world is disgracefully managed,
    one hardly knows to whom to complain.

                Ronald Firbank, Vainglory

 

 

 

 

The art of storytelling

I remember what’s important, and I make up the rest.
        That’s what storytelling is all about.

                    Nikki Giovanni, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project

 

 

 

Just the facts

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

        Aldous Huxley, Complete Essays, Vol. II: 1926-1929

 

 

 

 

 

The fruits of fear

Why do you want a theory at all, and why do you postulate any belief?
This constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear –
fear of everyday life, fear of sorrow,
fear of death and of the utter meaninglessness of life.
Seeing all this you invent a theory
and the more cunning and erudite the theory the more weight it has.
And after two thousand or ten thousand years of propaganda,
that theory invariably and foolishly becomes ‘the truth’.

        Krishnamurti, The Second Krishnamurti Reader

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem: Thar She Blows

Indoors or out, no one relaxes
In March, that month of wind and taxes,
The wind will presently disappear,
The taxes last us all the year.

        Ogden Nash