Wednesday, March 30, 2016

John D. McDonald

 
Today, my friends, we each have one day less, every one of us.  
And joy is the only thing that slows the clock.
 
John D. McDonald, The Scarlet Ruse, a Travis McGee novel.

Thomas Paine

 
And however our eyes may be dazzled, or our ears deceived by sound; 
however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, 
the simple voice of nature and of reason will say, it is right.

Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

Mahatma Gandhi

Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.

Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi

Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

Mahatma Gandhi

Abraham Lincoln

I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Plainly, the central idea of secession, is the essence of anarchy.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

 
Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

Abraham Lincoln

Abbey Lincoln

 
You can never loose a thing if it belongs to you.

Abbey Lincoln

Chuck Britt



...vulnerable with God... the risk is infinite, though I have never been hurt.

...vulnerable with my child... it can not actually be avoided.

...vulnerable with regular humans... the risk is always real and often foolish.

...vulnerable with my Beloved... I am the most fragile organism.
                                                   I am the bravest adventurer.
                                                   I am the astonished discoverer of myself.

Emily Dickinson


                    XXIII

I had no time to hate, because
The grave would hinder me,
And life was not so ample I
Could finish enmity

Nor had I time to love: but since
Some industry must be,
The little toil of love, I thought,
Was large enough for me.

Nelson Mandela

You negotiate in bad faith if you do not forgive your adversary.

Nelson Mandela

Pablo Piccaso

Art is not made to decorate rooms. It is an offensive weapon in the defense against the enemy.

Pablo Piccaso

Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake)

Let us put our minds together and see what kind of life we can make for our children.

Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake)

Mary Pickford

Failure is not the falling down, but the staying down.

Mary Pickford

Helen Keller

The million little things that drop into our hands
The small opportunities each day brings
He leaves us free to use or abuse
And goes unchanging along his silent way

Helen Keller

Confucius

Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.

Confucius

Confucius

Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.

Confucius

Paul Tillich

The first duty of love is to listen.

Paul Tillich

Laura Zirbes

... children come with especially sensitive detectors for the beings around them: they need to know the persons on whom they can depend for their nourishment and care. They automatically appraise their teachers, not as teachers, but as persons on whom they can depend for their nourishment and care.

Laura Zirbes

Laura Zirbes

The aim of education is vitalization, not socialization. Socialization can be valuable only when it is also vitalization. Otherwise the social order dies.  America dies.

Laura Zirbes
(She was the Mentor of Ross L. Mooney at Ohio State University.)

Lone Man (Isna-la-wica)

... I have seen that in any great undertaking it is not enough for a man to depend simply upon himself.

Lone Man (Isna-la-wica)
Teton Sioux

Martin Luther King Jr.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Mr. Rodgers

There's no "should" or "should not" when it comes to having feelings. They're part of who we are and their origins are beyond our control. When we can believe that, we may find it easier to make constructive choices about what to do with those feelings.

Mr. Rodgers

Chuck Britt

I can not control my feelings like driving them around like so many little cars with tiny steering wheels.

But... I can change my self-care in this moment and feel different in the next moment.

When I call myself names to push myself around, I feel increasing self doubt, frustration, and bitterness.  The people around me feel an increasing need to defend themselves and keep their distance as I continue treating myself that way.  Few of my plans seem to work out.

But then, when I notice I am calling myself names and interrupt myself... and then replace the self abuse with simple true statements like: ("I can choose to keep trying to be less impulsive. " Or, "I can choose to treat myself with self respect." Or, "I can choose to notice, interrupt and replace my self abuse.")  I will feel increasingly calm, better about myself, and less impulsive. As I continue remembering to notice self abuse, interrupt self abuse  and then replace it with affirmation over months and years, my self image will be stronger, my plans will begin to work better and people will feel safer around me.

Chuck Britt

Morning Dove (Christine Quintasket)

...... everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.

Morning Dove (Christine Quintasket)
Salish

Lawrence Durrell

...let us define 'man' as a poet perpetually conspiring against himself."

Lawrence Durrell

Ross L. Mooney

Where mental health exists, it arises from an expression of one's own being. The healthy individual possesses a sense of personal security and recognizes the value of self-respect and self-confidence. Both creativity and mental health involve mutual respect, confidence, and deep contentment.

Ross L. Mooney

Ross L. Mooney

The function of perceiving is therefore to establish relationships with what extends beyond man's skin, and to allow these relationships to be fitted into the relationships that are forming within his specific energy system.

Ross L. Mooney

Ross L. Mooney

Keeping the goings-on going on inside the system of a man depends upon the synchronous relations with the goings-on outside the system.

Ross L. Mooney

Ross L. Mooney

A man (person) perceives the universe, acts in it, organizes it, comprehends it, all from the locus of his being, his time-space location. To exist is to have this being, this unique organizing spot which is one's own and. no other. Other beings occupy their respective spots. Each being, in turn, composes the universe from its particular location.

Ross L. Mooney
(His work on perception, relationships, creativity and education at Ohio State University helped me decide what to do with my life. I met him briefly in 1970.  CMB)

Crowfoot

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

Crowfoot
Blackfoot warrior and orator

Jesus

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn: for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful: for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus
Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 5:3–12

Jesus

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Jesus
New Testament, Matthew 10:16, King James Bible

Miles Davis

I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light.

Miles Davis

Baruch Spinoza

 Happiness is not the reward of virtue, but is virtue itself; nor do we delight in happiness because we restrain from our lusts; but on the contrary, because we delight in it, therefore we are able to restrain them.

Baruch Spinoza


God is the indwelling and not the transient cause of all things.

Baruch Spinoza


I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.

Baruch Spinoza
 

Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.

Baruch Spinoza


There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope.

Baruch Spinoza


The more clearly you understand yourself and your emotions, the more you become a lover of what is.

Baruch Spinoza

John Dewey

 
 The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.

John Dewey

John Dewey

Education... is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.

John Dewey

Anon


I used to think a good parent was one who had well behaved children. Now I know a good parent is one who is well behaved when the children are not.

Mount Vernon Parent’ s Night Parent

Mr. Rodgers

I feel so strongly that deep and simple is far more essential than shallow and complex.

Mr. Rodgers

'Abdu'l-Baha

God has created the world as one—the boundaries are marked out by man.

'Abdu'l-Baha

Joanne Greenberg

 
You will have to trust me enough to take on faith that the new food, when it comes, will be richer.
Dr. Fried to Deborah

Measure the hate you feel now, and the shame. That quantity is your capacity also to love and to feel joy and to have compassion.
Dr. Fried to Deborah

And what does that signify to you?' he said, perhaps forgetting that if she could speak truly to the world, she would not be a mental patient.
Dr. Fried to Deborah

Mr. Rodgers

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping."

Mr. Rodgers

Friedrich Nietzsche

"Too bad!  What?  Isn't he going back?"

"Yes, But you understand him badly when you complain.  He is going back like anybody who wants to attempt a big jumb."
Friedrich Nietzsche

I say unto you:  One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.  I say unto you:  you still have chaos in yourselves.
Friedrich Nietzsche

The soul that has the longest ladder and reaches down deepest... the most comprehensive soul, which can run and stray and roam farthest within itself; the most necessary soul that plunges joyously into chance; the soul that, having being, dives into becoming; the soul
that has, but wants to want and will; the soul that flees itself and catches up with itself in the widest circles; the wisest soul that folly exhorts most sweetly; the soul that loves itself most, in which all things have their sweep and countersweep and ebband flood...
Friedrich Nietzsche
  • Note:  My reading of FN notices that he does not see those of us who have, "the longest ladder and reaches down deepest..." as a nationality or  a racial group but as a random sprinkling of individuals across the world who refuse to believe that what they have become so far is all that they are, and who feel compelled to find out. CMB
The man who would not belong in the mass needs only cease being comfortable with himself;  he should follow his conscience which shouts at him:  "Be yourslef!  You are not really all that which you do. think and desire now.
Friedrich Nietzsche

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
Friedrich Nietzsche

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.
Friedrich Nietzsche

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
Friedrich Nietzsche

The spirit of the poet craves spectators...
even if only buffaloes.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Mahatma Gandhi

 
Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.

Mahatma Gandhi

Mary Wollstonecraft

The absurd duty, too often inculcated, of obeying a parent only on account of his being a parent shackles the mind and prepares it for a slavish submission to any power but reason.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Chuck Britt


I can choose to remember...
development needs a model not a push.

When I admit to myself that I may very well have any of the possible consequences from every choice I make... positive, negative and indifferent... intended or un... then (and only then) will I have a chance to choose the consequences I intend.


Chaim Potok

...the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing.  But the man who lives that life, he is something.  He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant.,  A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life.  It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning.

Chaim Potok

Dwight Eisenhower

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
Dwight Eisenhower

War is mankind’s most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men.
Dwight Eisenhower

Saturday, March 26, 2016