Wednesday Whimsy

 "I've come to see life as partly fate, partly free will. The fate part is that our life story is a completed script, handed to us at birth. The free will part is that we get to make the movie."

Serious Advice

"If you're an apple, don't try to be a peach.  It can lead to a life of fruitlessness."

What You Often Find...

  "What you often find when you reach out to someone who seems cold and aloof is that they are just aloof."

Sunday Sermonettes

 "Oftentimes, the person you think needs to be taken down a peg really needs a small word of praise.  It is hard to be humble when no one is proud of you."

"The world knows how to straighten out a spoiled child but never makes it up to a child deprived."

"Sometimes the difference between a sense of loneliness and a sense of community is just a silent nod  of greeting from a passing stranger."

Thursday Thought

It is hard to change someone's mind who, after you've presented to them an indisputable array of contrary evidence, says to you, "You're just trying to change my mind." 

How To Succeed

 A common failing of management is to mistake efficiency for redundancy.  If a job is going well, management's first instinct is to assume that those doing the job are unnecessary and expendable.

The sad reality is that the more quietly efficient you are at your job, the more vulnerable you become at the next downsizing. Better to be seen as a problem solver, even if you must cause the problem in the first place.

Mid-Week Musings

 "I don't claim to know everything, but based on my observations of people who do know everything, or claim to, it's not one of the secrets to success anyway."

"If there is no afterlife, then what is life but a rigorous course of study that offers no degree."

"There are personal secrets I am very reluctant to reveal.  There would have to be an awkward silence at a cocktail party or a stranger sitting next to me in tourist class."