Hard-Learned Lesson #14

Never wonder, when you ask so little of life, why life gives you so little.

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A Thought at 88

 Been noticing wrinkles around my eyes -- laugh crinkles, I suppose, but for the life of me, I can't remember the joke.

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Politics, Anyone?

 Headline from the nation's capital: "Horse Gone.  Congress Debates Bill To Close Barn Door."

There is no greater spur to political action than the realization that it's too late.

 When the truth is not believed, lying is unnecessary.

Rarely is a fool made wise by winning an election. 

The problem with creating a more informed electorate is that those elected don't see it as a problem. 

Nobody runs for political office who does not have a need to exert power over others and who is not, to that extent, mentally ill.

As Wise As I'm Likely To Get

On the one hand, you don't want to be somebody's fool, but on the other hand, that is where most happiness lies.

How few lies you would hear if the only lies you heard were from liars. 

A problem common to every day and age is that everyone shares the same day but not the same age.

The time to despair is when you have clearly identified the purpose it would serve.

Trust in human decency and be extremely patient.

A Few Stray Thoughts

There is a time in life to trust your better judgment, but first, sadly, you must make the mistakes that create it.

Adolescence: the process of verifying what our parents teach us by learning it all over again for ourselves.

  

I am not a reporter, so I can't give you information "based on my reporting," but if you want, I can give you a guess based on my guesswork.

Perhaps the reason we know so little of the next life is the scarcity of "sources familiar with the situation."

In My Humble Opinion

A good place to look for life's purpose is among the things you always meant to do but never found time for.

You don't so much acquire things that make you happy as you separate your happiness from acquiring things.

We all arrive on this planet as aliens, although it is yet uncertain whether we are friendly.

The hardest thing about finding a common sense solution is finding any two people to agree on it.

You hear a lot of cocksure opinions these days, few of us having the confidence to voice a humble one.

On The Lighter Side

 I am told to just be myself, but as much as I have practiced the impression, I have never quite nailed it.

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Meanwhile I tried to sell my life story to Hollywood, but they turned it down --  insufficient drug problem.

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Some fine day they will develop a drug for weight loss that, as a side effect, cures cancer, and it will be just my luck to have cancer but not need to lose weight.

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If you're a young person fool enough to think you can do something never before done, there are thousands of older and wiser people who will agree you're fool enough.

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On The Serious Side

 You can be too personally involved to be objective, but the greater regret often lies in being too objective to become personally involved.

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Rarely does a person who can't handle the truth handle the lie any better.

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They who cannot find peace of mind in logic will contrive to find logic in peace of mind.

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Yes,it is still possible to call out a lie in America in the 21st century, if you are willing to be labeled a member of the truth police.

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From the Observatory

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

You know that evil is winning when it is seen not as evil but as a political difference we dare not discuss. 

We learn from history that lofty achievement takes dedicated perseverance -- and so does small achievement.

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 more trustworthy 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.

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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. 

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Define Marriage

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

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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.