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 non-political electorate, the latter participating in free elections that don't actually 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 people eventually control most of the wealth, and where, if left unbridled, the most enterprising person 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.

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 assessment. 

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

Nothing last 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.