From somewhere came a harmony
Of trumpets, strings and saxes.
The Earth stood still and I, it seemed,
Was spinning on my axis.
Oh, how, since then, the years have flown,
And Time itself has blurred,
But always in the life we've shared
That harmony I've heard.
That harmony I follow still,
That guides my path through space
And steers my spirit 'round the sun
And into your embrace.
You get to a point where you'd settle for life, liberty and the pursuit of can't-complain.
Overheard: "I have nothing against the human race. I just think there are better role models for our children."
There's a point in life when it's probably easier to leave the clutter where it is and put yourself out on the curb.
You have to believe that there's a little good in everyone, although, if there isn't, that would explain everything.
It is still possible to be a blind optimist, and there's a recent report of optimism among the hard-of-hearing.
From Reflections
Most people who have an opinion about everything actually have just one opinion that applies to everything.
People who tell you, "Putting it off won't make it any easier" presume there's a point where you plan to stop putting it off.
To couples blindly in love, marriage is the miracle of sight.
There are always obstacles, although sometimes they have to be rearranged to get into your path.
Who would not travel back in time to do the right thing, unless, of course, it were possible.
~~ from Reflections
A religion will always be popular that allows you to sin against your neighbor and apologize to a forgiving God.
Genius is mostly perseverance, and perseverance is mostly patience.
There is a constant battle between courage and cowardice to become your better judgment.
At some point in life we're asked to decide -- do we want to be a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10 or a 5 on a scale of 1 to 5?
Better to doubt and be doubted than wake up each morning with nothing to prove.
I don't know if we're all children of God, but I'm reasonably sure it's all or none.
My personal take on the night sky is that it's something that somewhere along the line got completely out of hand.
Meanwhile, my quest for fame finds me at age 88 still living my backstory.
Life is like a fancy restaurant -- it will always try to seat you at the worst table you will accept.
Life is a brief moment in eternity when you can't claim you were somewhere else at the time.
It is silly to blame yourself for every misfortune in your life, besides which it's too early.
I don't claim that it's always somebody else's fault, but since there's only one me and eight billion somebody elses, I like the probability.
Never wonder, when you ask so little of life, why life gives you so little.
~~~
Been noticing wrinkles around my eyes -- laugh crinkles, I suppose, but for the life of me, I can't remember the joke.
At 88 I don't know everything, but you tell me how it starts, I can usually tell you how ends.
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.
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.
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."
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.
I am told to just be myself, but as much as I have practiced the impression, I have never quite nailed it.
~~~~
Meanwhile I tried to sell my life story to Hollywood, but they turned it down -- insufficient drug problem.
~~~
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.
~~~
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.
~~~
You can be too personally involved to be objective, but the greater regret often lies in being too objective to become personally involved.
~~~~
Rarely does a person who can't handle the truth handle the lie any better.
~~~
They who cannot find peace of mind in logic will contrive to find logic in peace of mind.
~~~
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.
~~~
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.
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.
At some point in life it's your last chance, although it's never quite your last shot at your last chance.
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.
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?
How do you prove to a skeptic that God exists? How do you prove to your shadow that the sun exists?
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
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.
