Notes Unsaid

Life is for the living.
Death is for the dead.
Let life be like music.
And death a note unsaid.
―    Langston Hughes
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On This Day In:
2015	Still Seeking (Believe It Or Not)
2014	Guidelines For Bureaucrats
2013	Failing At Normalization
2012	Are You An Expert?
2011	Joy!

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Dave’s Not Here, Man

I’m not afraid to die.  I just don’t want to be there when it happens.
—    Woody Allen
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On This Day In:
2015	Blink
2014	The Struggle To Educate America Continues…
2013	On Elections
2012	Warm Smiles
	Pick Your Poison
2011	Straight Shooters

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Expiation For Rest

I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out.
It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.
—   Charles Dickens
From his novel: “A Tale of Two Cities“
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On This Day In:
2015	You’ll Get Through It
2014	A Special Kind Of Fall
2013	Very Rewarding
2012	MIB3 – The Team Is Closer Than Ever
	Yet
2011	Little By Little

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Dignity And Grace

One does not ask for life.  But it is all you have and you must live it and honor it and at the right time surrender it with the dignity and grace befitting the best that is in you.
—    House of Sinanju
[I have a large number of “quotes” in my journal which are simply attributed to “House of Sinanju”.  I am sure they are all (each) from one of the 70+ books in “The Destroyer” series (co-written by Richard Sapir & Warren Murphy) which I was reading back in the 1970’s.  I didn’t record which book each quote came out of at the time I found them.  So, I’m just leaving them as recorded.  If anyone finds the book with the quote in it, and lets me know, I will be happy to attribute the quote accurately.    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2015	Is It Warm Enough For You
2014	What The Right STILL Wants
2013	Embrace Serendipity
2012	Your Order, Please
2011	Well Enough Anyway

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A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion

Death signifies nothing … the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
—    Albert Einstein
[I wonder if he still feels that way?    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2015	Or You Don’t
2014	If You Ever Fall…
2013	Glory Days (part 2)
2012	They Follow A Pattern – If You Know What I Mean
	What I Live For (Precis)
2011	Giving

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In Trembling Hope Repose

THE EPITAPH
Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth
A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.
Fair Science frown’d not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy mark’d him for her own.
Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heav’n did a recompense as largely send:
He gave to Mis’ry all he had, a tear,
He gain’d from Heav’n (’twas all he wish’d) a friend.
No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
(There they alike in trembling hope repose)
The bosom of his Father and his God.
—    Thomas Gray
Excerpt from his poem: “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard“
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On This Day In:
2015	Let There Be Light
2014	Unless
2013	Divergent Roads To Similarity?
2012	In The Process
2011	What Do You Emphasize?

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Cold Embrace

Fear not death and it cannot become your enemy.
—    The Book of Sinanju
[Death is not my enemy, but neither do I welcome soon the cold embrace of its long term friendship.   —     KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2014	Delightful
2013	Apprenticeship
2012	Curtain Rods
2011	A Living Force
2010	BART Rides – A Tipping Point

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A Last Request

That … be not told of my death,
Or made to grieve on account of me,
And that I be not buried in consecrated ground,
And that no sexton be asked to toll the bell,
And that nobody is wished to see my dead body,
And that no mourners walk behind me at my funeral,
And that no flowers be planted on my grave,
And that no man remember me,
To this I put my name.
—    Thomas Hardy
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On This Day In:
2014	It Matters
2013	And You Are?
2012	Not Too Late
2011	Persistence
2009	Health Care?

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But If I Had To Perish Twice…

They say you die twice.  One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.
—    Banksy
[With apologies to Robert Frost (see here)…    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2014	Turning Pages
2013	We Are All Accountable
2012	American Sign Language
2011	Happy Disproof
2010	Book Review – Managing Your Government Career

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Infinite Adventure

I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity.  I want this adventure that is the context of my life to go on without end.
—    Simone de Beauvoir
[Happy Birthday to me!   Actually, I’ve found the older I get and the more brushes with death I have, the more accepting I am of my own mortality and of the greater infinite context beyond this one.  But I’m nowhere near ready to start it!    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2014	Unpaved
2013	Headstones
2012	Keeping Young
2011	Lessons Well Learned

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This High Place

Tyrtaeus of Sparta
I would not say anything for a man nor take account of him
For any speed of his feet or wrestling skill he might have,
Not if he had the size of a Cyclops and strength to go with it,
Not if he could outrun Boreas, the North Wind of Thrace,
Not if he were more handsome and gracefully formed than Tithonos,
Or had more riches than Midas had, or Kinyras too,
Not if he were more of a king than Tantalid Pelops,
Or had the power of speech and persuasion Adrastos had,
Not if he had all splendors except for a fighting spirit.
For no man ever proves himself a good man in war
Unless he can endure to face the blood and the slaughter,
Go close against the enemy and fight with his hands.
Here is courage, mankind’s finest possession, here is
The noblest prize that a young man can endeavor to win,
And it is a good thing his city and all the people share with him
When a man plants his feet and stands in the foremost spears
Relentlessly, all thought of foul flight completely forgotten,
And has well trained his heart to be steadfast and to endure,
And with words encourages the man who is stationed beside him.
Here is a man who proves himself to be valiant in war.
With a sudden rush he turns to flight the rugged battalions
Of the enemy, and sustains the beating waves of assault.
And he who so falls among the champions and loses his sweet life,
So blessing with honor his city, his father, and all his people,
With wounds in his chest, where the spear that he was facing has transfixed
That massive guard of his shield, and gone through his breastplate as well,
Why, such a man is lamented alike by the young and the elders,
And all his city goes into mourning and grieves for his loss.
His tomb is pointed to with pride, and so are his children,
And his children’s children, and afterward all the race that is his.
His shining glory is never forgotten, his name is remembered,
And he becomes an immortal, though he lies under the ground,
When one who was a brave man has been killed by the furious War God
Standing his ground and fighting hard for his children and land.
But if he escapes the doom of death, the destroyer of bodies,
And wins his battle, and bright renown for the work of his spear,
All men give place to him alike, the youth and the elders,
And much joy comes his way before he goes down to the dead.
Aging, he has reputation among his citizens.  No one
Tries to interfere with his honors or all he deserves;
All men withdraw before his presence, and yield their seats to him,
The youth, and the men his age, and even those older than he.
Thus a man should endeavor to reach this high place of courage
With all his heart, and, so trying, never be backward in war.
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On This Day In:
2014	Elected Madness
2013	Well Written
2012	Related Parts
2011	The King Is Oscar
	Better Reputation?

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I’ve Got To Run

…I know what death is and all you people don’t even know what life is.
There’s nothing noble about dying.  Not even if you die for honor.  Not even if you die the greatest hero the world ever saw.  Not even if you’re so great your name will never be forgotten and who’s that great?  The most important thing is your life little guys.  You’re worth nothing dead except for speeches.  Don’t let them kid you any more.  Pay no intention when they tap you on the shoulder and say come along we’ve got to fight for liberty or what ever their word is there’s always a word.
Just say mister I’m sorry I got no time to die I’m too busy and then run and run like hell.  If they say coward why don’t you pay any attention because it’s your job to live not to die.
—    Dalton Trumbo
From: “johnny got his gun“
[I’ve heard it said this book is the most shocking anti-war novel ever written.  To me, it is more than that.  It is a statement about a man who lives on.  Though by all normal definitions, he is dead.  He lives on…     —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2014	Which Is It?
2013	Making You Stronger
2012	Sick Of Being Sick
	Greater Than Power
2011	Clear, Specific And Measurable
2010	The Runner’s High
	Into The Dark…

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Live, Then, As If…

What shall we know of our death?  Either the soul is immortal and we shall not die, or it perishes with the flesh and we shall not know that we are dead.  Live, then, as if you were eternal, and do not believe that your life has changed merely because it seems proved that the Earth is empty.  You do not live in the Earth, you live in yourself.
—  André Maurois
Quoted by Will Durant
From his book: “On the Meaning of Life“
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On This Day In:
2012	Still Trying
2011	Not Deserving

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Four Score

At eighty, a man has experienced everything:  love, and its ending;  ambition, and its emptiness;  several foolish beliefs, and their rectification.  Fear of death is not very great;  affections and interest concern people who have died and events of the past.  In a cinema theatre when the show is continuous the spectator has the right to retain his seat as long as he wishes to do so, but actually, when the scenes he has already witnessed reappear on the screen, he leaves the theatre.  Life is a continuous show.  The same events take place every thirty years, and they become boring.  One after another the spectators take their departure.
—   André Maurois
[I don’t know…  I’ve watched some movies fifty or more times.    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2012	The Ruler
2011	Forever
2010	Just Cuz
	How Do You Mend A Broken Heart?
	It’s Alive!! (3rd Pair Shoe Review)

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Beautiful Adventure

Why fear death?  It is the most beautiful adventure in life.
—   Charles Frothman
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On This Day In:
2012	Precedence
2011	Ya Think?

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