“When a person does not have a good reason to do something, he does have a good reason for not.” – Anonymous
I don’t know if I agree with this. It seems a little to ‘protestant work ethic’ oriented. You have to always have a known reason beforehand for doing something. You need to redeem your time, your money, your efforts for the greater good, or for business, or for your family, your home, something. You can’t just do something.
Is this true for you? If so, do you end up with what you want or does it still escape you?
If it is not true for you, what about it do you think actually would be a good thing for you to put into practice?
“Wherever They Burn Books, The Will Also, In The End, Burn People.” – Heinrich Heine
The act of burning a book is a desperate attempt to obliterate an idea.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of bad ideas out there that I would love to see done away with. Racism, homophobia, sexism, slavery, and thousands more. But the answer to the question of how to get rid of an idea is to combat it with reason, with arguments, with social force, with civil disobedience, with love. NOT by burning a book containing the idea.
This, of course, doesn’t even address the issue that in most cases book burners are not fighting the things I mentioned above. What they are usually fighting is a religion they don’t like, or a take on that religion (see Salmon Rushdie). Sometimes they are fighting a cultural issue (see Dixie Chicks, Beatles), or maybe a political philosophy (see Marx, Paine, Gandhi,) But in every case it is fear that drives them. Not fear based on knowledge and reason, but fear based on mob mentality and ignorance.
I am talking metaphorically now…Don’t burn a book today (or ever). Don’t burn a person or an idea either. Fight for what is right instead.
“Not beauty but respectability is only skin deep.” – anonymous
At first I didn’t get this idea, so I tried to come up with something that had outer beauty but would somehow deny respectability at the same time. A hairy underarm on a beautiful woman seemed the perfect illustration.
The surface styles and trends of an season, an era or a culture are often seen as being the same as respectability. What is on the surface is what others see and judgments are made based on that. The more critical of judgments is not the one deciding if someone is beautiful, but if someone is respectable.
For example, if an American sorority is picking between two girls at rush, and there is the plain one with shaved underarms or the beautiful one with unshaved underarms, which one do you think they will pick?
I predict they will pick the plain one. Why? Because they care more about surface respectability than beauty when it comes down to it.
How do you judge in this same way? How do you combat this type of judgment? Or is it valid to do so?
“A religion without mystery is a temple without God.” – Robert Hall
What is so wonderful about a mystery? Isn’t the fun of a mystery being able to figure it out? Do we want to cut off certain areas of exploration by saying ‘it’s a mystery’ and be done with it? I don’t think so, at least I know I don’t.
If you become aware of some ‘truth’ and purposely avoid recognizing it on a daily basis for the benefit of keeping your ‘mystery’ alive, then you are cheating yourself of growth. An example might be purposely not reading any articles or books on science because you prefer to hold on to the ‘mystery’ of how the universe works, small and large. You think that by remaining ignorant the ‘mystery’ can continue to exist.
The problem, of course, is that your purposeful ignorance doesn’t allow anything to continue except your ignorance. Truths are still discovered, new ideas about life are still put forth and explored, new ways of viewing the human experience are still brought forth AND new mysteries continue to enthrall.
But you, if you are fearful of learning those things, don’t get to find new truths OR new mysteries. You just get to remain ignorant and boring. Don’t fear your religion, whatever it is, running out of mysteries, it won’t. The more you learn the more mysteries you will have to enjoy.
“By perseverance the snail reached the ark.” – Charles Spurgeon
And by perseverance you will reach your goal as well. Who has accomplished anything immediately, the moment they set out to accomplish it? As a matter of fact, most of the time when fame or glory for something comes too quickly for someone, they falter in its light because they feel guilty for not having worked hard enough or long enough to achieve their goal. They don’t feel like they deserve it. And they have to work hard to prove to themselves and others that, while they didn’t deserve it initially, they will earn it after the fact.
The key in all this is to understand when to persevere and when to give up. Sometimes giving up is the wise thing to do. I tried for 8 years to get a full-time college level teaching job in art during the 80s and 90s in California. At year 9 I gave up and retrained myself to be a computer artist, moved to Oklahoma to take an entry level job as a jr. illustrator and animator. Two years later I was the Art Director and Producer of a series of educational CDroms for kids at that same company. I had to give up on one dream so I could find the level of success, accomplishment and financial support I needed for myself and my family. In the meanwhile though I never stopped being the one thing I have always been, that is an artist. The dimensions and media changed, but not the ideas or the passion.
So, here are a series of questions to help you reach the ark, or to decide if you even want to get on that particular ark.
Are you persevering in your goal?
Do you have good evidence that it is a realistic goal? I don’t mean all your friends and family think it is, I mean objectively do YOU have the talent and ability to accomplish this thing you want to accomplish, even if it is an outlandish idea?
Are you getting distracted by other, less important things?
Are you willing to sacrifice pleasures in time and focus for your goal?
Are you making the personal connections and networks you need to reach that goal?
Are you making a list and checking it twice?
Are you seeing the big picture but focusing on the individual steps?
Answer those questions and you will have a much better grip on where you are in your efforts and if they have a chance to succeed.
“A Book is a Mirror: If An Ass Peers Into It, You Can’t Expect An Apostle To Look Out.” – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
I chose this quote not because I believed it, but because I questioned it. I understand the idea, but it does seem to render the book sterile and the reader static. That person who is closed up, shut off, wrapped up in what they already think about life, then yes, the book is unlikely to reflect anything new.
But the person who is open, who is unafraid to be changed for the better by the world, that person isn’t looking in a static mirror, but into a magic mirror. The mirrored book, if it is good, will reflect back a greater person, a wiser person, a more interesting and curious person.
Do you have a book that has done that for you? What is it?
“No Man Can Think Clearly When His Fists Are Clenched.” – George Jean Nathan
Anger is most often an enemy of thought. It can be used deliberately to engender thought in others, like from a pulpit or a lecturn. But it is more often not ‘used’ in any deliberate way, or rather, in any well thought out way.
If you are angry today, unclench your fist, your emotions, your mind, just for a minute. You won’t have to give up your right to be angry a moment later,you can go back to it if you want. You aren’t relinquishing your right to be have anger as an avenue and as a weapon. You can use it if you want, right now or later. But if you practice letting go of it, you might find you don’t need it, much like an addict realizes at some defining moment they can get along with out the cigarette or drink. Maybe you can too. Try it, you have nothing to lose but your anger.
“We Are Not The Red States, We Are Not The Blue States, We are The United States Of America!” – President Obama
All who are behind Obama, keep it up. All who are not or are holding back, give him, and this country, the benefit of the doubt. Hope the best, be the best. Be purple, not red or blue, ok?
“We may have all come on different ships, but we are in the same boat now.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and in anticipation of the Inauguration of Barack Obama I offer this truth.
It does NOT matter what boat you or your ancestors came on. It does NOT matter if the boat was named Mayflower and arrived 389 years ago from England or if it was named Diego and arrived 28 years ago from Cuba.
It does NOT matter if they didn’t take a boat, but walked across the land bridge from Siberia over 10,000 years ago.
What matters is the boat you are in NOW. All I know is that I share that boat with you. I want it to be a peaceful, prosperous, creative, purposeful and fun journey. But above all I want it to be filled with love.
Read MLK, Jr’s quotes enough and you see that his guiding principle was, first and foremost, love.
“Imagination rules over two thirds of the universe, the past and the future, while reality is confined to the present.” – John Paul Richter
I find many people treat the future as more real than the present. They let it rule their lives by the anxiety and fear that not knowing what it will bring instills in them. But it is just as legitimate to imagine a perfectly fine future as it is to imagine a depressing one. Either way you are thinking about possibilities not true realities so why not have your brain filled with what you want in the future instead of what you fear?
“There is a mortgage for every castle in the air.” – anonymous
So sayeth the sign saying GO. The sign saying STOP does not sayeth thus, because STOP does not imagine any castles. GO imagines and believes even while being rooted on the earth. It is stationary like STOP. It is in one locale like STOP. But it is always telling those who come upon it at the crossroads to GO, because it knows the mortgage is paid, on earth and in the sky, by driving on.
“By dint of railing against idiots you run the risk of becoming idiotic yourself.” – Gustave Flaubert
Notice it says ‘runs the risk’. Railing against something doesn’t always make you idiotic, but for it not to, you must keep your cool. Not for every single moment, but for the overall picture.
I remember my unwife use to get perturbed at me for ‘railing’ at times. She would say ‘but what does your anger accomplish?’. I would say in response ‘I am not trying to accomplish anything, I am simply expressing my feelings about something’. But I think she had a valid point in some ways. It is ok to simply express your feelings of anger or frustration at stupidity and idiocy. But it is also good to train yourself to have a larger reason for your expression.
Maybe you plan it, like when your child has continually not obeyed you and you know that it is now time for ‘the fear of god’ to be put into them. So, you let that ‘fear of god’ out. Not in violence and not in mean, hurtful ways. But you express your anger with the knowledge that you have a particular outcome you are hoping for. It is sometimes called ‘righteous indignation’ and it can stop people in their tracks.
The key is to stop and think, evaluate, be willing to think it through with this thought, ‘If I COULD affect something postively with my anger, what would it look like?’
“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” – John Andrew Holmes
As long as you don’t have an attitude while you do it. If you do it to prove how great or noble you are, then your motives are like a bitter addition to a great tasting dish.
I don’t mean you can’t be satisfied and proud of yourself for taking care of others. I mean it is best to think those things after the fact, glow in it a while if you want, then forget it and go be the good person with a guileless heart.
“If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism. If you steal from two, it’s research.” – Wilson Mizner
I sometimes feel like I am guilty of the big P because I use so many quotes from all of history. I have never been good about writing down who said what, especially on the napkin itself. But now that I have made a book of some of them I definitely had to go look up all the quote and figure all that stuff out!
“God will look you over for scars, not diplomas.” – Elbert Hubbard
I believe the Universe (read God if you want) does look AT diplomas, but he/she doesn’t look over YOU to find them. You are not your paperwork. You are, however, your effort. And the effort to fight cancer or the effort to gain a degree is seen and taken into consideration. Not by a God who is trying to figure out if you deserve something or not, but by a Universe that lays opportunities at the feet of those who perspire in the effort, whatever it is.
Regarding Breasts: Breasts aren’t more valuable than lungs, marrow, testicles, blood, colons, skin or any other part of the body that can get cancer (what part can’t?). But breasts are a wonder-filled part of the body and they shouldn’t have to be taken off of the body because something inside it is growing out of control. Cancer sucks.
“The only sure thing about luck is that it will change.” – Bret Harte
A truth to remember for all those in the middle of the Big L, whether Good L or Bad L.
This is why holding on to transient highs and lows as if they are built to last is harmful and self-defeating. I don’t mean you can’t enjoy the Good L that comes along. But you need to live with the understanding it isn’t meant to be permanent, any more than a soufflé is. Eat it up when it is ready, take full advantage of the Good L when it is before you. But don’t try to put it in the fridge and eat it tomorrow. Make a new soufflé, a new Good L, tomorrow instead.
“You can not have more bedbugs than a blanket-full.” – Spanish proverb
I like how this puts an upper limit on the woes one can collect. It is reassuring to note that many ‘overwhelming’ problems can be broken down to see their finite parts and thus can be managed and worked on more effectively. It gives hope to know they aren’t infinite.
“Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful.” – Annette Funicello
My wife and I have ‘our’ song and it is ‘Wonderful World’ as sung by Louis Armstrong. I love driving in the car on a puffy cloud day and having that on. It is filled with simple gratitude for love, beauty, friendship and growth.
What day passes where we can not find at least one of those things to admire and cherish? Every day, in other words, has ‘wonderful’ in it, if we are paying attention.
“There is no such thing as creative hate.” – anonymous
I am actually not sure I believe this. I think many people can be very ingenious when it comes to not liking people or groups. Think of all the convoluted legal and moral arguments that have been used over they decades and centuries to deny the right to vote, religious freedom, and freedom of self to mention just a few. There was great creativity (masking a terrible fear) that led to all that effort.
“If a window of opportunity appears don’t pull down the blinds.” – Tom Peters
When I was younger, I was a practicing artist, as I am still. I was having shows, getting awards, being published, etc. I was known for taking advantage of opportunities. But the truth was I wasn’t. I took advantage of some, but I did not take advantage with the diligence and tenacity I really need to have. As a result some crucial opportunities passed me by and it affected my career as a result.
Each and every opportunity must be pursued if you want to say you did everything you could to make something happen, in your life, love, or something else.
“Those who know the least obey the best.” – George Farquhar
What’s the most important reason to get a thorough education? It is NOT so you can get a job. It is so you can protect yourself and those you love from hatred, sickness and manipulation. It is so you can fight with confidence when you and those you love are threatened by something or someone.
It might be a religion talking to you, it might be your government, it might be your neighbor. But if you are not educated you have no defense against error, against lies, against misinformation. I am not just talking about a formal education but you do put yourself behind the 8 ball if you don’t have that, I am talking about educating yourself constantly through out your life.
