Ah, Perspective!

A summer vacation, it seems wonderful in prospect,  but then, in the actual experience, it diminishes often to the point of becoming a series of irritations, until, inevitably, retreating into memory, it becomes wonderful again.

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As I See It

A working republic consists of the government, the governed and a neutral third party mediator called the Constitution.  

A working democracy is a fundamental agreement between an enlightened leadership and a free electorate, the agreement confirmed by periodic elections that don't change anything.

The most basic progressive belief is that if we can get the rich to pay their fair share, we won't have to pay ours.

The most basic conservative belief is that if you weren't born to opportunity, you had your chance.

A political party is like any other conspiracy, the people it targets believing they are part of the conspiracy.

If we of the middle class nearly always support the rich over the poor, it is because we rightly believe that the poor want what we have while wrongly believing that the rich don't.

A free-enterprise system is a meritocracy where a few enterprising individuals eventually control most of the wealth, and where, if left unbridled, the most enterprising single individual eventually controls all the wealth.

On Likability

Two things are needed to be likable -- you must possess the likability gene, and you must not know you possess it. 

You wonder if people with a winning personality worry that they are liked just for their personality.

If there's one question that's always answered eventually, it is why you didn't like someone at first.

Personally I would never want to be liked just for my money -- although I would not refuse money for that reason.

Although dictionaries do not usually define "to understand" as 
"to like," that is usually what people mean when they ask to be understood. 

Imperfection Anyone?

What if you eliminated all the faults in your character only to discover that the faults were the only character you had? 

There's nothing like a self-improvement program to discover what your friends used to like about you.

If we learn from our mistakes, shouldn't a job resume be a list of our mistakes?

One of life's more jolting discoveries is that you are not your best friend's best friend.

It is less what love sees in you than what love chooses to overlook.

The hardest part of marrying "for better or worse" is when it's better for one and worse for the other.

Mozart died at 35.  Alexander the Great died at 32.  Makes you wonder what great things you might have achieved if you had only died young.

The Curmudgeon's Corner

 Next time my analyst says, "If you're unhappy, whose fault do you suppose that is?" -- I got a list of names in my hip pocket.

 "I dunno, seems like nothing ever brings you back to reality that makes you want to stay there."


"There's an important distinction between denying reality and avoiding it whenever possible."


"Don't expect people to see the handwriting on the wall who can't see the wall."


Overheard: "There's not a deceitful bone in his body, but look out for his vocal chords."


"It is an assumption of the rich that those who are happy with little would be happier with less."


"Oh, to have back the nasty things I've said about myself in order to be the one who said them first."


"You get to an age when even your subconscious doesn't have any desires."

Idle Thoughts #2

 

To ask, "What will it all matter in the end?" is not an excuse to do nothing but a reason to act without delay.

To call anyone a complete fool is nearly always premature.

Sometimes you need to wake up to realize it isn't just a bad dream.

Better than none is an apology past its "best if said by" date.

It doesn't seem right that a greedy few should have all the wealth when you know in your heart you're just as greedy.

The more preposterous a belief, the louder the claim that there are irrefutable proofs nobody knows about.

Lessons Learned

"We are usually more successful when the goal is the reward than when the reward is the goal."

"The best teachers set their expectations high but not so high as to rule out being pleasantly surprised."

Remember, as you plan for the future, that the future does not announce its arrival with a grand trumpet call.  It presents itself, rather, in small segments which we call, "for the time being," and it is what we do in these segments, -- what we do "for the time being" -- that ends up as our future.  

It is not so much a "road to success" as an "exit ramp to success," lest the road itself become a never-ending journey.