From the Observatory

It is unlikely that America's experiment in democracy will succeed if humanity's experiment in civility doesn't.

There is a tendency among people easily flattered to be easily offended,  and it is rare that they are not in one state or the other.  

We learn from history that lofty achievements take lofty goals and dedicated perseverance -- and so do small achievements.

It is noteworthy that the historical document most dedicated to saving the world says to no one, "Go forth and save the world."  It says only, "Love thy neighbor."

No person of sensibility wishes to be praised to their face.  It is the rare instance of where hearsay is the preferred medium. 

Wisdom, Anyone?

 There is a continuing war between the mind's aspirations and the body's desire for comfort, the former striving to make you exceptional, the latter determined to make you like everyone else. 

The great enemies of exceptionalism are food, clothing, shelter and health care -- the Four Horseman of the Everyday.

It must be admitted that people who spend their lives acquiring material things have the best yard sales.

I wonder sometimes if anyone has ever found true happiness in a comparison.

You cannot teach humility, but you can foster a self-esteem that displays itself as humility.

Most of what children learn from their parents does not come from the spoken word.

Tips For Getting On With It

 At some point in life it's your last chance, although it's never quite your last shot at your last chance.

Ever ask yourself what you might do differently if you had tomorrow to live over again?

You cannot change tomorrow by changing yesterday, That is what today is for.

Never act for "a whole list of reasons."  Rarely does a compelling reason occur as part of a list.

There are times when you just have to look in a mirror and say, "I will if you will."

And, finally, never think that something that tests your patience is going to test just some of it.

A Stroll Through The Archives

There's nothing like someone saying, "You know better than that" to make you wonder what you ever did to make them think so.

  I've learned this about making a good first impression -- that the more obvious the attempt, the better.

If I choose to believe that we're all God's children, it's because I'm darn sure it's all or none.

A phrase you hear a lot these days is, "You're overthinking this," which, to be honest, is not something I've noticed to be that widespread a problem.

I don't know if love conquers all, but it conquers the hard part, and a little forgiveness usually does for the rest.

******

What skeptic has not, in the dark of despair

Or the shadow of anguish and grief,

Sent out from his heart a questing prayer

To the God of his disbelief?

Me And My Shadow

 

How do you prove to a skeptic that God exists?  How do you prove to your shadow that the sun exists?

This sun you speak of, my shadow asks,

 This invisible light in the skies,

Why does it never reveal itself?

Why does it hide from my eyes?

This thing you say created me, 

This lantern somewhere above,

Why do I never feel its warmth?

Where, for me, is its love?

How to my shadow do I respond?

How, when the day is done,

To a shadow vanishing into the night

Do you prove there exists a sun?

Of Life, Love and Recollection

Perhaps, because life is but a moment, it is insignificant, or, perhaps, because life is but a moment, it is momentous.

You spend years learning what's important and one heart-stopping moment learning what's more important.

It is said that you only get one life.  Actually, you get only one birth and one death.  How many lives you squeeze in is up to you.

 

Love can be a conversation about nothing, or it can be a quiet comfort in each other's presence that is about everything.

What we see in an old family photo is not just a still moment in time but a moment when there was still time.

Ah, nostalgia!  We live our days in the glare of the sun and recall them in the glow of the moon.

from Reflections

As Deep As I Get

There are things the human mind cannot comprehend, among them the boundlessness of possibility.  Only by accepting this do we free our hopes from the limits of our understanding. Why confine our consolations to some narrow theology when every miracle we could wish for lies in the unknowability that is God?  The answer to the eternal "Why" lies in the three words, "We Don't Know" and in those words lies all hope.

If there's one thing you learn in a long life, it is that God will eventually do what is necessary to capture your attention.  

Religion and science have this in common, that each believes in a mystical, unseen Trinity, invisibly controlling the universe.  For religion, it is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  For science, it is Dark Mass, Dark Energy and Dark Flow.

The Fruit Untasted

 Life is more a basket of kumquats than a bowl of cherries -- the task you kumquat finish, the promise you kumquat keep, the apology you kumquat find the words for. 

****

Define Marriage

Disclaimer:  The following applies to marriages generally and not to any particular marriage I might be involved in.  😉

****

Marriage:  the unforeseen consequence of a wedding.

Marriage:  a state of bliss in which if one partner dies unexpectedly, the other is the prime suspect.

Marriage: the process by which, after two become one, they decide which one.

Marriage:  a partnership formed with no clear objective and sustained by the absence of any clear alternative.

Four Thoughts

 It is a shame to keep a deep dark secret from the one person who might most help you to bear its burden.

It is sad when a relationship survives all the reasons it could never work only to fail because you neglected the reasons it should have worked.

There are words said in the heat of argument that you cannot unsay.  You must trust in love's ability to unhear.

The ultimate test of love is a test of forgiveness, and no one so tested will ever ask again, "What is love?"  

Ah, Perspective!

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

And therein lies the question -- if you look forward to your vacation with great anticipation and remember it with wistful pleasure, does it really matter if you didn't actually enjoy it?

As I See It

A working republic is a tangible entity, consisting of the government, the governed and a neutral third party mediator called the Constitution.  

A working democracy is an intangible ideal, defined by an enlightened leadership and supported by an essentially non-political electorate amenable to leadership.

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.

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?

You can be your own best friend, but happiness really begins when you become your own second-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.

One thing you learn to do in life is to accept an apology that is past its "best if said by" date.

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.

Idle Thoughts

The devil, on God:  "If you ask me, He does have a tendency to demonize His opponents."

It is possible, you sadly discover, to know every nuance and still lack the first clue.

To be happy, though poor, is not only possible but fast becoming one's patriotic duty.

I am not your dog, but if every time you saw me, you gave me a backrub, I would run to greet you, too.

The difference between instruction and education?  Parents instruct their children; children educate their parents.

If you spend all your days being someone else's messenger, blame the messenger.

Retirement Notes

 "One of the revelations of retirement is how long life can go on after you've completed your memoirs." 

"The older you get, the more you despair of the human race, possibly the result of llimiting your new acquaintanceships to people you meet in traffic.

"A continuing challenge in retirement is what to do when a police officer tells you to go about your business."

"I went to a seance the other day where we all sat around trying to resurrect ghosts from the past.  Wait, that was my class reunion."

Obits and Pieces

As a general rule, your life story is more interesting the longer you can postpone the living happily ever after. 

If winning were everything, wouldn't your obituary say whether you won or lost?

Obituary -- an account that sums up your life's work in one line and goes on and on about how you loved the beach, dancing and eating breakfast out.

We are all born for a reason, life being a list of things we have to attend to first.

Somewhere amid life's endless distractions lies its purpose, each of us deciding for ourselves which distraction it is.

The Mother's Day Collection

 

                                                                        ~~~~


"Mom -- the person most likely to write an autobiography and never mention herself."


"What is a mom but the sunshine of our days and the north star of our nights."


"If you have a mom, there is nowhere you are likely to go where a prayer has not already been."


"Ever wonder why someone would give up the leading role in her own life story to play the mom in yours?"


"There seems, early in life, to be countless reasons for happiness, and then you discover your mom is making them up."


                                Hide and Seek

                  A mother always counts to ten,
                      And never, never peeks,
                 But always knows just where you
                          hide,
                     And there she never seeks,
                Until the very nick of time,
                     Lest tears run down your cheeks.



"I guess I have never doubted that we are each born to our guardian angel."


"Sometimes, in a moral struggle, we remember a lesson our mother taught us, just as on a cold winter's day long ago, we discovered mittens pinned to our coat sleeves."


"Conscience is less an inner voice than the memory of a mother's glance."


"A mother forgives you all your faults, not to mention one or two you don't even have."


"Eventually you realize that your mom knows exactly who you are and has been trying to break it to you gently all your life."


"It occurs to you one day that the reason God didn't always answer your prayers is that He was answering your mom's prayers."


"Your mom reads you like a book, and everywhere she goes, people read you like a glowing book review."

                                         Those Times

                  

Those times you could not see her tears,

Do you think she didn't cry?

Those times you could not bear the truth,

Do you think she didn't lie?

Those times you wished she loved you less,

Do you think she didn't try?

Five For The Road

 A best friend is that rare person who can reveal to us our capacity for fun.

I'm not sure what the measure of truth is, although I'm reasonably sure it's not a comfort index,

The first place to look for meaning in life is in something you've always been meaning to do.

We are all human beings, fallible and misunderstood, which is to say, often guilty but seldom as charged.

Do you suppose that evil ever worries that its efforts are too little, too late?

Behind The Mask

Sometimes we don't win another person's trust because we can't tell the lie it would take.

Life is not fair, a frequent observation of those responsible.

Never put yourself in the position where you consider someone telling the truth a traitor.

You are not a true hypocrite if you merely preach one thing and do another; you must also, simultaneously, deplore hypocrisy. 

Not all marriages prove to be true love, but all marriages serve to identify it.

It is easier to engrave it on a monument than to live it.

This, That And Happiness!

It's a curious thing, the School of Life, its graduates never known to have a class reunion or respond to an alumni appeal..

 One advantage evil has over good is its vastly greater ability to cite precedent.

We learn from our mistakes, especially the mistake of not learning from history.

The problem with self-improvement is that it's usually not completed early enough in life to affect evolution. 

Ah, happiness, lying unnoticed beneath the busyness of the moment, revealing itself only to the quiet of our recollection.

From Our Random Observer

In 1492, Columbus discovered America, which, up to then, had been minding its own business.

If there's a lesson in history, it is that you don't ever want to be discovered by a more advanced civilization. 

One thing you never get from love is a credible explanation of what it sees in you.

The chief cause of unemployment is getting the job done.  If you want steady work, merely show progress.  

 We get pretty much the happiness we arrange to have, the happiness mainly in the arrangements.

It is a difficult trade, comfort for happiness, and usually done over the loud objections of the body.

Well, Yes, Now That You Mention It

 When science tells us that nothing prior to The Big Bang can be known, it effectively says, "There be God." 

What makes accepting reality so hard is that our perception of reality keeps changing, while our delusions stick to their story.

A human lifetime is that brief instant in all of eternity when we have no alibi.

We find in our imagination the means to overcome most obstacles, a good thing because that's where we find most obstacles.

To believe anything on insufficient evidence is to believe anything, because there is never a shortfall of insufficient evidence.

From My Observation Post

As much as we crave admiration and respect, it's hard to resist someone who just thinks we're funny.

What is often lacking in people of good intention is a compelling ulterior motive.

There are days when it would be hard to remain an optimist were it not for your army of secret admirers.

The words, "I'm not perfect" are usually accompanied by a willingness to hear arguments to the contrary.

There is a tendency to confuse inherited worth with inherited worthiness.

Nothing makes you question the importance of good parenting like the success of your neighbor's kids.

Love Is A Many-Splintered Thing

  

 "The cause of many a broken relationship is someone who craved respect and got love."

"Most sinners know who their forgivers will be, and that, more than anything else, is what makes it a sin."

Nothing is more difficult, after you say, "I love you," than explaining what you didn't mean by it.

Thoughts Of A Clearly Older Fellow

There are worse moments in old age than recalling some long-ago embarrassment and realizing that you have outlived all the witnesses to it.

 

You can look upon life as dust to dust or you can look upon life as seed to seed.

Sign over the gates of Hell, "DOESN'T MEAN YOU'RE A BAD PERSON."

We all know them -- people who, if they end up in the fires of Hell, will complain about their neighbors screaming too loudly.

Parenting, too, is an art form, although one in which you don't get to hide your early, amateur works in the attic.

 

No one really wants to be someone else.  We want to be ourselves, only with someone else's brains and talents and physical reflection in a mirror. 

We crave understanding, believing that with understanding will come approval.  But not everyone who disapproves of us misunderstands us.

Questionable Question Marks

 "Given that we all believe things on insufficient evidence, why not believe that there's a little good in everyone?"

"If the art of the magician is to distract attention from what's really happening, then what is life but the ultimate magic trick?"

"Need lovers always agree?  I dunno -- need poetry always rhyme?

"Ever have a day when you can't get started on anything because nothing else can wait?"

"Have you ever wondered how there came to be less wealth than fair shares?" 

Dry, Sly And Wry

As reported in Genesis, the Creator surveyed His handiwork and saw that everything was good, not great, which pretty much squares with my own observations. 

The thing I like best about keeping my own company is that I can usually sense when it's time to leave.

Nothing lasts forever, which is not to say it cannot seriously overstay its welcome.

If I distrust people different from me, it is because they are not different enough.

According to recent psychological studies, the need to own a dozen cats is really a suppressed desire to own two dozen cats.

A Few Things I Want (And Don't Want)

I don't want any living thing to live in fear of me.

I don't want anyone to feel that there is a truth that cannot be uttered in my presence.

I want never to see another person's honest ambitions as a personal threat.

I want never to claim that I am anyone's conduit to the Word of God.

I want never to judge or be judged by first impression.

I want to share what I've learned, not proselytize what I've always believed. 

I want never to get by force what I can get by persuasion.

I want never to think that people just instinctively know when they are valued or loved or appreciated.

I want, now and then, to say to those I love what I would say to them if they had just died in my arms.

Potpourri

Trouble is, well-intentioned people often make things worse, but ill-intentioned people rarely make things better. 

Somewhere amidst life's endless array of distractions lies its purpose, although it is often a challenge to decide which distraction it is.

To correct someone's bad grammar and be accused of semantics is like correcting someone's bad arithmetic and being accused of mathematics. 

Happy people are more often happy in spite of something than because of something.

Who Be These Strangers From My Past?

We are all in the course of a lifetime many different people -- strangers to us now, shadows in our past, but their battle scars remain ours to carry, their sins ours to atone, their promises ours to keep. How do you reconcile this person you are with these people you once were? 

Who be these strangers from my past 

These ghosts who haunt my day,

Whose battle scars I carry still,

Whose debts I must repay,

Whose trinkets fill my attic space,

Whose idle thoughts my brain,

Whose sins reside upon my soul,

Forever to remain.

How came this mortal coil to be

My final residence,

This house forever haunted by

Its previous occupants? 

But What If...

We think of Doomsday as when everything will end, but what if Doomsday is when everything began? 

We speculate on there being a parallel universe, but what if there's a perpendicular universe?

Science and Religion have this in common -- that they see everything as true or false.  But, see, what if it's multiple choice?

The Daily Grind

 "There are days when you feel that if you walked down the street in a clown costume, no one would recall seeing anyone in a clown costume"

"There is no actual law that says you can't get locked into a daily routine that makes you happy."

"Whatever you're trying to prove, it's good occasionally to spend a day not trying to prove it."

"Never let anything ruin your day that is not on the list of things you will let ruin your day."

~~ from Reflections 

A Few Personal Observations

We learn from our mistakes, which explains the education level of those who claim they have never made one.

Life is an exercise in the pursuit of happiness, the actual experience of happiness confined to brief pauses in the pursuit..

If you are to succeed in life, you must ignore the advice of those who dearest desire is to keep you from being disappointed.

No one ever entered their teen years with a well-thought-out exit strategy.

The most basic requirement of a job interviewer is to distinguish the skills needed to do the job from the skills needed to pass the job interview.

Some Old, Some New.

It is a mistake to subscribe to reality unless you also subscribe to the annual updates.

While I like a politician who claims to know what I deserve, I would hope he/she is better informed on other subjects.

The obstacle to having a better-informed electorate is that the people elected to office rarely see it as a problem. 

I have heard many descriptions of hell that sound like hell, but I have never heard a description of heaven that sounds like heaven.  Eternal hellfire is easy to imagine.  It is harder to imagine an eternity of anything being heavenly. 

All I know about wisdom is that it lies somewhere beyond ignorance and short of certainty.

The Happiness Chase

I have never envied another's material possessions, although I have envied the happiness they get from them.

There are days when I am unaccountably happy, and, in fact, that is usually the reason for it.

There are reasons for happiness and reasons for unhappiness, although unhappiness seems to be the more ingenious in coming up with them.

I compare the pursuit of happiness to a day of fishing -- it helps if you stock the pond.

Random Thoughts

Never say to someone, "I see what you're trying to say."  Few people want to hear a clarification of what they're trying to say.

It is sad to think how many domestic disagreements are wordless, conducted in mutual silence..  

In a just world you would get what you rightly deserve and everyone else would get what's coming to them.

In the end it's probably less important that you believe in God than that there's a God who believes in you.

It is rare that a woman who does the same thing every Tuesday all her married life has a husband who can tell you what she does on Tuesdays.

Ignorance is the state of knowing only what you've learned from people you want to hear it from.

There is a tendency to blame people of faith for the intolerance of people who know for sure.

Hard Lesson Learned #24:  "Never say anything in public that you are hearing for the first time." 

What Passes For Wisdom Around Here

 People incapable of faith more often find refuge in certainty than doubt.

Sometimes the faith to believe in a miracle comes easier than the gullibility to believe in the rational explanation.

Everyday life for a mortal being is mostly about doing things today that won't matter tomorrow, therein accounting for their urgency.

Generally speaking, the more you learn of how the world works, the less you blame yourself.

Most happiness, like most worry, depends pretty much on how small a thing you can make important.

Me, Myself and You

 The most life-changing "what if" we ever ask is, "What if it isn't all about me?"

The trouble with caring only about yourself is that it's always the first step to not caring about anyone. 

What you discover about self-love is that it doesn't last, and it's the devil to go your separate ways.

Today's Deep Thought:  "A miracle is something without which whatever happened would have taken a miracle."

In Every Moment That You Share

We shared a vow to love forever.

Now life's a fading afternoon,

And bent with age I fear "forever"

Was always just some whistled tune.

But then I feel your glance upon me,

And in your eyes that light sublime,

And, lo, I realize, "forever"

Had never anything to do with time.

For when a love's a boundless loving,

And when a care's a timeless care,

Then truly do you love "'forever"

In every moment that you share.   

Tender Subjects

 I asked, "How can anyone who really knows me ever love me?" only to discover that it was the only way anyone ever would.

"It's not easy -- loving someone through the chinks in their armor -- especially when the love they return is so often trapped inside."

"To truly know someone is to know the thing they never speak of -- and to recognize the silences that speak of it."