Cabbage Looking

If you refuse to be made straight when you are green, you will not be made straight when you are dry.
—     African Proverb
[This quote reminds me of the British expression:  “You’re not as green as you are cabbage looking.”    —    KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2020	Your Challenge
2019	The Tragedies Are About To Get Worse
2018	Plunge
	Time To Meet God
2017	Wealth Within
2016	Soaring
2015	Gone To The Library…
2014	Choose To Lead
2013	Not Sent Yet
2012	Wall-Crawler Reboot
	Learning To Count
	On Worshiping God
2011	Emancipated Differences
2010	A Little More Technology, Please…

Read Full Post »

They Are All Perfect

Try to keep your expectations reasonable.  You’re beginning the journey of a thousand miles with a single step.  Each step is important;  every step counts.
—    John “The Penguin” Bingham
From his book:  “No Need For Speed“
.
On This Day In:
2020	Perhaps There Has Been Some Method In My Madness
2019	An Accidental Escape
2018	And I Thought It Was Just My Deodorant
2017	Hannity And Limbaugh
2016	Or He Could Just Be Lazy
	Small Hero
2015	Seeking Cultured Leadership
2014	Examining Failure
2013	Driving Passion
2012	Cannibal, n.
2011	Moments Of Truth

Read Full Post »

6/11 Capitol Riot Commission

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil:  God will not hold us guiltless.
Not to speak is to speak.
Not to act is to act.
―     Dietrich Bonhoeffer
.
On This Day In:
2020	Fact Check: Presidential Memories
	Vote In November!
2019	Where Today’s Republican Party Is Failing America (And The President)
2018	Either / Or
2017	Redemptive Power
2016	On Calls To Renew Waterboarding / Torture
2015	Still Struggling
2014	How To Become A Saint
2013	Not Much Change
	Our Biggest Fear
2012	Brain, n.
2011	Styles Of Leadership
2010	Face Front!

Read Full Post »

Get Vaccinated AND Wear A Mask

It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.
—    Mark Twain
.
On This Day In:
2020	Didn’t I Just Post Yesterday?
2019	A Long Slog
2018	There Is No God But God
	To The Uncommitted Reader
2017	Not Yet That Well-Organized
2016	Probably Whatever Was Sought Yesterday
2015	What We Choose To Divide Us
2014	Peace With Honor
2013	Dangerous Systems
2012	Useful Science
2011	Say It, But Please Don’t Make Me Listen

Read Full Post »

Gotta Have A Friend

Spirit In The Sky
Favorite Line(s):
Prepare yourself
You know it’s a must
Gotta have a friend in Jesus
So you know that when you die
He’s gonna recommend you
To the spirit in the sky
(Spirit in the sky)
.
On This Day In:
2020	In The Moment
2019	I Will Try Again
	Original Chips
2018	Still Blogging
2017	Reliable Vision
2016	Still Walking
2015	Steps
2014	To Be Greatly Good
2013	Limited Capacity
2012	Two Ear Ticklers
	Justification
2011	To Avail The Nation

Read Full Post »

None Live Apart

I am interested in the way that we look at a given landscape and take possession of it in our blood and brain.  None of us lives apart from the land entirely;  such an isolation is unimaginable.  If we are to realize and maintain our humanity, we must come to a moral comprehension of earth and air as it is perceived in the long turn of seasons and of years.
—     Navarre Scott Momaday
.
On This Day In:
2020	In The Moment
2019	I Will Try Again
	Original Chips
2018	Still Blogging
2017	Reliable Vision
2016	Still Walking
2015	Steps
2014	To Be Greatly Good
2013	Limited Capacity
2012	Two Ear Ticklers
	Justification
2011	To Avail The Nation

Read Full Post »

And Then You Begin

I had as many doubts as anyone else.  Standing on the starting line, we’re all cowards.
—    Alberto Salazar
.
On This Day In:
2020	A Prayer For China
	He Says The Last Five Questions Are Really Hard
	Fear And Cleverness
2019	Historic Contact
	All Good
2018	History Judges Incompetent Presidencies, Too
2017	Our Confident New President
2016	Ways
2015	Be Happy, Too
2014	At Least Smile
2013	Comfortably Bound
2012	Certainty
	Thinking About Fathers
2011	And In Every Level Of Media

Read Full Post »

Families

…
The nuclear family, in its brief heyday, was fundamentally an economic strategy, one that made it easier to control the supply of workers and organize childcare and domestic work so that women were doing as much of it as possible for free.  This arrangement no longer makes economic or emotional sense — and millennials know it.  Almost half of us, after all, grew up with parents who were divorced, or in single-parent households.  But the nuclear family remains the only form of family with cultural legitimacy.
…
Here’s the lesson I had to learn:  “Traditional” nuclear families today are no more stable or secure, no more or less likely to lead to lasting happiness, than “alternative” households.  In “The Sirens of Titan“, Kurt Vonnegut spends hundreds of pages coming to the conclusion that the purpose — or at least a purpose — “of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”  The problem with found families is exactly the same as the problem with every other sort of family.  There is no perfect structure, no single set of rules, that can guarantee that people will always be decent to each other, will never have growing up to do, and that nobody will ever get their heart broken ever again.
…
And that, I suppose, is what family means.
It means you love whoever is around to love.  That doesn’t mean you have to like them all the time.  Love takes work.  Living together takes work.  Sick and tired of waiting around in the antechamber of socially sanctioned adulthood, millennials are setting up home right here.  We are not waiting for our “real lives” to start.  We may never have the security or stability we were raised to desire, but we can still have commitment and community.  For me, this is my real life.  These are the households and relationships where I have grown up, learned how to take care of myself and other people, had my heart and brain and favorite mugs broken.  These are our real lives, brief and beautiful, stupid and unlikely, and we would live them far better if we were given permission — beyond the wish fulfillment of fiction — to believe in them.
—    Laurie Penny
From her article: “Live Wrong And Prosper: It’s The Future Of Families“
Appearing in:  Wired Magazine, dtd: July / Aug 2020
Online at:  https://www.wired.com/story/live-wrong-prosper-covid-19-future-of-families/
.
On This Day In:
2020	A Message To Optional Trump Supporters (Basically Everyone)
2019	Bigger Jaws
	On The Other
2018	Hoping For A Blue Wave In November
2017	Garden Dreaming
2016	Well, Maybe Not “No” Talent
2015	An Appetite For Life
	A Trip To The Library
	Great Expectations
2014	Pass The Soul
2013	Zapping Music And Art
2012	Not Quite Fantastic
	That Kid Is Back
2011	Wolves At The Door
2010	I’m Feeling Patriotic… (Well, more than usual, anyway.)
	Beating the Heat…

Read Full Post »

Feeling Younger

When I was a little boy, I told my dad, ‘When I grow up, I want to be a musician.’  My dad said:  ‘You can’t do both, Son’.
—    Chet Atkins
.
On This Day In:
2020	One Person
2019	More Likely Unsinging
	What’s At Stake…
2018	But What Are You DOING About November?
	Or His Elected Position
2017	Some Good
2016	Edges
	Sums
2015	I Hope Not
2014	Study The Means Of Expressing Yourself
2013	That Stubborn Thing
2012	Like Mike
2011	Flawless Or Candid
2010	Browning…

Read Full Post »

Saving Democracy And A Voting Rights Act

Some things you miss because they’re so tiny you overlook them.  But some things you don’t see because they’re so huge.
—    Robert M. Pirsig
From his book:  “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance“
[To “save” American democracy we need three things:  A voting rights act (to save the people’s right to decide our leaders);  increased vaccinations (single payer health care would be nice, too);  and, an infrastructure bill which make fighting climate change a national priority.  Unfortunately, one or two will not be enough – and the clock is ticking…    —    KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2020	Two Hours From Now
	Criminal Incompetence, Criminal Indifference Or Both
2019	Slow Wisdom
	It Is A Start…
2018	Young, Fun And Playing Well
2017	Earning Your Blessings
2016	A Suggestion…
	Capable Of Being
2015	Looking For The Needles In The Haystacks
2014	The Definition Of A Gentleman
2013	Thar She Blows (Not)!
2012	Naturally
2011	Been Here, Done That
	Remember
2010	Timeless Classics

Read Full Post »

Don’t Forget Luck

Inherently, each one of us has the substance within to achieve whatever our goals and dreams define.  What is missing from each of us is the training, education, knowledge and insight to utilize what we already have.
—    Mark Twain
.
On This Day In:
2020	Plumbers, Philosophers Or Presidents
2019	Watching
2018	Even #45 Shall Pass To Sand
2017	Shedding Light
	In The Neighborhood
2016	The Responsibility Of Freedom
2015	Face It
	Birdfight
2014	Honoring Firefighters
2013	And Never Will
2012	The Human Adventure Continues
2011	Almost Never

Read Full Post »

In Between

Humor is something that thrives between man’s aspiration and his limitations.  There is more logic in humor than in anything else.  Because, you see, humor is truth.
—    Victor Borge
.
On This Day In:
2020	A Poverty Of Attention In An Attention Economy
	Don’t Forget
2019	Boxes
2018	Hoping For Better Come November
	An Honest Binge
2017	Give And Keep
2016	No Change Here
2015	Campbell’s Law
2014	Dignified Values
2013	Unappreciated Skill
2012	Living Courage
2011	What’s Happening To Us?
2010	Toothbrush, Carbon and Monoxide Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!

Read Full Post »

Your Best Heat

The best that an individual can do is to concentrate on what he or she can do, in the course of a burning effort to do it better.
—    Elizabeth Bowen
.
On This Day In:
2020	Me Too
2019	No Regrets
2018	In Times Of Crisis
	Genes, Desire And Luck
2017	The Voice Of Experience
2016	Who And When
2015	Change Process
2014	What Is Still Possible
2013	Strength Is There
2012	Beyond Reasonable Doubt
2011	Celebrating Values
2010	Is it just me, or is it suddenly dark around here?
	Dance!

Read Full Post »

A “Modest” Goal

…We have no idea – and never have had – whether the market is going to go up, down, or sideways in the near- or intermediate term future.
What we do know, however, is that occasional outbreaks of those two super-contagious diseases, fear and greed, will forever occur in the investment community.  The timing of these epidemics will be unpredictable.  And the market aberrations produced by them will be equally unpredictable, both as to duration and degree.  Therefore, we never try to anticipate the arrival or departure of either disease.  Our goal is more modest: we simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.
—    Warren Buffett
.
On This Day In:
2020	BLM
2019	Courage And Patience
2018	Push The Envelope
2017	Ents
2016	Are You Sure?
2015	Distracted
2014	What It Takes
2013	We Are
2012	Utopian
2011	Seen Any Black Swans Lately?

Read Full Post »

Feeling Humble

Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe – a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.
―     Albert Einstein
.
On This Day In:
2020	Mostly Dry, With A Chance Of Late Rain
	And The Same Goes For Blogs / Posts
2019	Not Enough
2018	One Thing We Do Know
2017	Preservation
2016	Going Back
2015	Just For Today
2014	Reaching For Destiny
2013	Still Just Passing Through
2012	Live Or Die
2011	On Secession
2010	A Rocky Weekend

Read Full Post »