I professed my fanhood for Bear Grylls here and now I must do so for another Englishman, a knight in fact, who I've recently learned more about. His words and philosophies are inspiring; his actions, adventures, daredevilry, business successes, and humanitarian efforts are impressive (lest we forget: actions speak louder than words). I'm referring to Richard Branson, or Sir Richard Branson, although I bet he's quick to dispel or oppose any pretentiousness that comes with the title. He said this in an interview and it's great advice: "I actually think everybody should write a book about their lives. I've persuaded a number of people to do so.... You don't have to have led a very public life, I think everyone has led interesting lives. Your children and your grandchildren will be fascinated by the lives you lead." I am grateful for every word my grandparents wrote that was saved by the family. My dad's dad kept a journal during the Korean War and my mom's dad wrote several letters home from WWII. I continue to ask questions and pry stories out of my grandmas. They're awesome women; I'm so lucky, and M 'n' m are lucky to have them as great-grandmas. I spent considerable time with one of my great-grandmas when I was young – I was cared for by a person born in 1900! – and I'll never forget her motherly generosity and dependability. She had a wonderful sturdiness of character. I won't forget her house and garden, her cactuses and Siamese cats, her coin collection and the organ she played beautifully. How much I'd love a book about her life and times! She rode in a covered wagon. She lost a young son tragically (to drowning in the ocean) and was heartbroken I'm sure. She would not allow anyone to leave her house without a hug. She was a Dodger fan because of Jackie Robinson, and she smoked, drank beer, and watched baseball when she wasn't mothering and feeding everyone. And her daughter (my grandma) became the first Ph.D. in the family and one of the most all-around impressive women I've ever known, a sheer force of productivity and love. I remember my great-grandma sitting with me at a table and doing a Lego set while listening to the radio broadcast of the college football game everyone else was at. Awesome. What a woman! So just do it, someday, please, for your descendants, write down a few thoughts and stories. In a journal, on Facebook, in emails, whatever. In any form or format your loved ones can keep... or photocopy or scan or otherwise digitally archive; let them figure it out; you just record your slice of history, what you went through, what advice you'd give, your life's joys and curiosities, and so on; it's fascinating and your grandchildren will thank you.
"First of all, I'm lucky, I have a very extraordinary mother, and a lovely father, and we're a very, very close-knit family, and that's fortunately continued with myself, my wife and children, and so on ever since. So that's given us a fantastic foundation as a family.... Well, my mother, her whole approach to bringing up her children was one where she'd be arrested today but in those days she could get away with it. At age three or four she would shove me out of the car two or three
miles from grandmother's house and tell me to make my own way there. She
would put me on a bicycle at age seven or eight and tell me to ride 300
miles in the pouring rain, again to grandmother's house, and her attitude
was, you know, if we survived we'd be the stronger for it. She wouldn't allow us to watch television, for instance, we had to get out there and do things. She would push us out of the house and tell us to come back in the evening.... We lived in the countryside and it was a fun upbringing, and a very loving upbringing; it may not sound like it, but she wasn't actually trying to kill us, she did love us as well [laughter].... It's fun, my mom's 94 now and I just saw her a few minutes ago and she will never stop. I mean she's got an idea a minute, and, you know, we've always had to run to keep up with her, and put the two of us together and it's a dangerous combination!"
— Richard Branson in a phone interview with Tim Ferriss
"When things went wrong (during his various dangerous adventures)... if you're gonna survive, the only way you're gonna survive is by keeping focused, by staying positive, even if you are facing almost certain death, you're definitely going to die unless you stay focused and stay positive and fight to the bitter end, and, you know, there have been circumstances where, on paper, we were well over the 90% chance I'm not coming home, and I think by staying focused and staying positive, and with a big dose of good fortune, we made it all the way back."
— Richard Branson, interviewed by Tim Ferriss
"I think humor is important, putting on a brave face, cracking jokes, plenty of hugs; I think hugs are important [laughter]."
— Richard Branson, speaking of how he reassured others as Category 5 Hurricane Irma roared over them devastating Necker Island
"Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.... A company is people.... The way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers.... There's no magic formula for great company culture. The key is just to treat your staff the way you would like to be treated."
— Richard Branson
"Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to make something simple."
— Richard Branson
"If your dreams don't scare you they are too small."
— Richard Branson
"I don't think of work as work and play as play. It's all living."
— Richard Branson
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Monday, October 23, 2017
#378
I wonder how much Meg is troubled by the Las Vegas rampage. So many people murdered. Megan has a keen sense of the potentially unsafe and scary. She has a kind of hair trigger on her personal fear, and it's a trait or biochemistry she gets from me, I'm afraid. Naturally, our 'hair trigger' misfires. It distorts us and intensifies our perception of things. It helps us too – not much goes over Megan's head, unless she's buried in her smartphone which is too often – but the over-anxiousness can be burdensome. Generally, our well-being and safety isn't being threatened. We're fortunate to live in a good community and country, and I believe the world, overall, is far from lawless. I suppose that's debatable. If you watch the news, you'll surely think the world's headed to hell in a handbasket.... But getting back to Megan and Las Vegas, public shootings are scary. When I was a little younger than m, I was shocked by a similar TV news report; a guy walked into a McDonald's and opened fire. The TV cameras showed police tape, flashing lights, and a terrorized McDonald's restaurant identical to the ones I'd been in many times. I was freaked. I didn't eat comfortably in fastfood joints for months, maybe years; I profiled other diners like I would, honestly, frankly, other airline passengers in the aftermath of 9/11. I sat panicky on airplanes for a few years and still don't love flying. My irrational brain can be like Mike Tyson, and logic like one of his first 37 opponents. (Tyson won his first 19 fights by knockout, 12 in the first round, and 33 of his first 37 by KO; the most dominant young fighter ever.) Anyway, I think I've evolved a little with age, and hopefully m will too.
My days of writing about Michael, directly, will end now. I can still comment on parenthood, I guess, moving forward, as I closely observe upperclassmanship in high school in a few years, and teen driving and dating and growing and maturing and teen technology use and applying for college and getting ready for launch and life. And sports, I can talk about sports, and Iowa State who just cracked the football top 25 rankings!!!!! God I love Iowa State. Almost as much as I love M 'n' m.
Writing is cathartic. Blogging and scribbling and journaling and list-making and emailing and Facebook-posting and attempting to organize thoughts during hectic, emotion-filled days and months and years. Most of my days have significant emotion in them, things above or below neutral, likely both, though some days are more turbulent than others. Maybe writing makes me feel productive, expressive, and not lazy, in addition to the catharsis part, which I seem to use as a primary excuse for writing. But why do I need an excuse to write? Why do I need permission? It's one of those paradoxes in parenting I've discovered; I don't want M 'n' m to be reckless, but I don't want them seeking permission for everything in life either, whether it be from authority figures or pop culture or me. The more I know, the more I realize I don't know. So I want M 'n' m to be confident, empowered individuals, setting their own course and habits that will lead to a long, fulfilling life. Amen.
Definition of CATHARSIS
noun, plural catharses
1: the purging of emotions (such as pity or fear) or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through art
2: a purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal
3: elimination of a complex by bringing it to consciousness and affording it release
"Journaling is really about priming our soul for action... activating our energy."
— Brian Johnson
My days of writing about Michael, directly, will end now. I can still comment on parenthood, I guess, moving forward, as I closely observe upperclassmanship in high school in a few years, and teen driving and dating and growing and maturing and teen technology use and applying for college and getting ready for launch and life. And sports, I can talk about sports, and Iowa State who just cracked the football top 25 rankings!!!!! God I love Iowa State. Almost as much as I love M 'n' m.
Writing is cathartic. Blogging and scribbling and journaling and list-making and emailing and Facebook-posting and attempting to organize thoughts during hectic, emotion-filled days and months and years. Most of my days have significant emotion in them, things above or below neutral, likely both, though some days are more turbulent than others. Maybe writing makes me feel productive, expressive, and not lazy, in addition to the catharsis part, which I seem to use as a primary excuse for writing. But why do I need an excuse to write? Why do I need permission? It's one of those paradoxes in parenting I've discovered; I don't want M 'n' m to be reckless, but I don't want them seeking permission for everything in life either, whether it be from authority figures or pop culture or me. The more I know, the more I realize I don't know. So I want M 'n' m to be confident, empowered individuals, setting their own course and habits that will lead to a long, fulfilling life. Amen.
Definition of CATHARSIS
noun, plural catharses
1: the purging of emotions (such as pity or fear) or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through art
2: a purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal
3: elimination of a complex by bringing it to consciousness and affording it release
"Journaling is really about priming our soul for action... activating our energy."
— Brian Johnson
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Stuff About Things #7
"Fathering may be good for men as well as for children."
— Ross D. Parke
"But despite these sorrows my father remained an optimist. And that optimism was the greatest gift he gave to me – a sense of excitement about life that has carried me through everything."
— Doris Kearns Goodwin, Vanity Fair magazine
"His heritage to his children wasn't words or possessions, but an unspoken treasure, the treasure of his example as a man and a father. More than anything I have, I'm trying to pass that on to my children."
— Roy Rogers
"I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all."
— E. B. White
From Men's Journal magazine: "In the sport of bull riding, grit is a prerequisite, and these guys have a lot of it.... In the locker room, the Brazilians' abundance of grit isn't immediately clear, but their camaraderie is.... The real difference between the Brazilians and the Americans goes back to fundamental toughness. The Brazilians train harder during the week. They don't whine, they don't bitch, and they come in expecting to win. If I was a young rider, I'd watch them closely and learn everything I could."
From Vanity Fair magazine: "True belief, if you think about it, is much scarier than simple greed. The greedy man can always be bought at some price, and his behavior is predictable. But the true zealot? He can't be had at any price, and there's no telling what his mad visions will have him and his followers do."
"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."
— Christopher Hitchens
"Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it."
— Christopher Hitchens
From Men's Journal magazine: "Stig Severinsen contends that optimal breathing, with its focus on physical, mental, and emotional self-awareness, can be an effective weapon in the world of corporate warfare." ... and from Men's Health magazine: "Turns out, deep breathing can stimulate the production of insulin, which lowers blood-sugar levels; with more time, it can also nix extra cortisol (a stress hormone) and harmful free radicals."
From Vanity Fair magazine: "One evening in December, young John (F. Kennedy Jr.) emerged from Jackie's room. Spotting a portrait of his father, he removed a lollipop from his mouth and kissed the image, saying, 'Good night, Daddy.' Jackie related the episode to Marg McNamara by way of explanation as to why it would be impossible to have such a picture near. She said it brought to the surface too many things."
"When I was young I spent months humping a pack and an M-16 up and down the Annamite Cordillera in Vietnam. It took me years to want to go out in the mountains again, but now nature was my friend, a consoling, calming presence I wanted to share with my son.... When I picked my pack back up, I realized I'd forgotten the bear spray. There were grizzlies up in the high country. A big male could be twice the size of a lion, weigh up to a third of a ton, and reach nine feet tall when it stood up. It could kill you and then eat you. You weren't at the top of the food chain and you could feel it.... I always took bear spray, and usually I took my pistol, too, an old Colt M1911A1 .45 like the one I carried in the war. The .45 was basically useless against a grizzly, but I like carrying it. Bear spray was better. It could make the fiercest grizzly turn and run, but only if you could get the canister out of the holster, pull back the safety, depress the trigger, and spray it in the bear's face, all in a split second. I knew how fear could paralyze a man when he wasn't hardened by daily contact with it. I hadn't been that man in a long time – the man who could respond with skill to a sudden onset of fear – so I wasn't sure that if a grizzly suddenly appeared I would be able to do any of those things."
— William Broyles
"Everything that could possibly go wrong with that game did.... I had to just breathe through it and go into that area you learn about through meditation: 'Oh yes, I recognize this, this is life, this is how life goes, there's no reason to rail against it, this is OK.'"
— Phil Jackson
"We don't have a healthcare system in the U.S. but a disease-care system. We treat diseases – we don't prevent them. Traditional doctors aren't trained in diet, supplements, exercise, meditation, and other therapies you need to stay healthy."
— Dr. Frank Lipman, preventative and holistic care advocate
"Winners know what they don't know." — Men's Health magazine
"Joe Maddon says the most important thing he has to do as a manager is listen to his players." — Men's Journal magazine
"The human brain is one of nature's most advanced systems, but it nevertheless has a hard time distinguishing the difference between real and imagined threats." — Men's Health magazine
"Advanced results required advanced measures. Does nobody understand this anymore? You have to do the work and you have to sacrifice.... The key to confidence has less to do with inborn talent than it does with ingrained practice." — Men's Fitness magazine
"The other side of it (of getting up very early, other than having private time to be productive) is just straight-up self-discipline. It's not fun to get out of bed early in the morning. When the alarm goes off, it doesn't sing you a song, it hits you in the head with a baseball bat. So, how do you respond to that? Do you crawl underneath your covers and hide, or do you get up, get aggressive, and attack the day."
— Jocko Willink
"Once, instead of paying attention to the class, I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. At the end of the hour, (the professor) asked me what was so much more interesting that his lecture. I held up the book and told him it was the greatest novel written in any language since William Faulkner died. I still think so."
— Bill Clinton
"Like a magnet, two poles lie at the ends of American success: You can succeed by empowering others or you can succeed by exploiting them." — Bloomberg Businessweek magazine
"'You can go run business development for a mobile company!' was one suggestion (from friends who assured her she could easily jump into a money job in the for-profit sector). Well, I would rather die. Seriously. I can't imagine getting up every morning and putting on a little suit and getting into my little car and driving on the highway with my Starbucks and having meetings where I do not care, nothing is at stake; it's about dollars and the bottom line, which is fine, but it's just not motivating to me at all. It's not that I think there's anything wrong with that world, obviously, but it's just not for me and it would be soul destroying."
— Sue Gardner
"Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it."
— Michel de Montaigne
"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time."
— Thomas Merton
"Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm, and harmony."
— Thomas Merton
"Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real."
— Thomas Merton
"We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen."
— Thomas Merton
— Ross D. Parke
"But despite these sorrows my father remained an optimist. And that optimism was the greatest gift he gave to me – a sense of excitement about life that has carried me through everything."
— Doris Kearns Goodwin, Vanity Fair magazine
"His heritage to his children wasn't words or possessions, but an unspoken treasure, the treasure of his example as a man and a father. More than anything I have, I'm trying to pass that on to my children."
— Roy Rogers
"I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all."
— E. B. White
From Men's Journal magazine: "In the sport of bull riding, grit is a prerequisite, and these guys have a lot of it.... In the locker room, the Brazilians' abundance of grit isn't immediately clear, but their camaraderie is.... The real difference between the Brazilians and the Americans goes back to fundamental toughness. The Brazilians train harder during the week. They don't whine, they don't bitch, and they come in expecting to win. If I was a young rider, I'd watch them closely and learn everything I could."
From Vanity Fair magazine: "True belief, if you think about it, is much scarier than simple greed. The greedy man can always be bought at some price, and his behavior is predictable. But the true zealot? He can't be had at any price, and there's no telling what his mad visions will have him and his followers do."
"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."
— Christopher Hitchens
"Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it."
— Christopher Hitchens
From Men's Journal magazine: "Stig Severinsen contends that optimal breathing, with its focus on physical, mental, and emotional self-awareness, can be an effective weapon in the world of corporate warfare." ... and from Men's Health magazine: "Turns out, deep breathing can stimulate the production of insulin, which lowers blood-sugar levels; with more time, it can also nix extra cortisol (a stress hormone) and harmful free radicals."
From Vanity Fair magazine: "One evening in December, young John (F. Kennedy Jr.) emerged from Jackie's room. Spotting a portrait of his father, he removed a lollipop from his mouth and kissed the image, saying, 'Good night, Daddy.' Jackie related the episode to Marg McNamara by way of explanation as to why it would be impossible to have such a picture near. She said it brought to the surface too many things."
"When I was young I spent months humping a pack and an M-16 up and down the Annamite Cordillera in Vietnam. It took me years to want to go out in the mountains again, but now nature was my friend, a consoling, calming presence I wanted to share with my son.... When I picked my pack back up, I realized I'd forgotten the bear spray. There were grizzlies up in the high country. A big male could be twice the size of a lion, weigh up to a third of a ton, and reach nine feet tall when it stood up. It could kill you and then eat you. You weren't at the top of the food chain and you could feel it.... I always took bear spray, and usually I took my pistol, too, an old Colt M1911A1 .45 like the one I carried in the war. The .45 was basically useless against a grizzly, but I like carrying it. Bear spray was better. It could make the fiercest grizzly turn and run, but only if you could get the canister out of the holster, pull back the safety, depress the trigger, and spray it in the bear's face, all in a split second. I knew how fear could paralyze a man when he wasn't hardened by daily contact with it. I hadn't been that man in a long time – the man who could respond with skill to a sudden onset of fear – so I wasn't sure that if a grizzly suddenly appeared I would be able to do any of those things."
— William Broyles
"Everything that could possibly go wrong with that game did.... I had to just breathe through it and go into that area you learn about through meditation: 'Oh yes, I recognize this, this is life, this is how life goes, there's no reason to rail against it, this is OK.'"
— Phil Jackson
"We don't have a healthcare system in the U.S. but a disease-care system. We treat diseases – we don't prevent them. Traditional doctors aren't trained in diet, supplements, exercise, meditation, and other therapies you need to stay healthy."
— Dr. Frank Lipman, preventative and holistic care advocate
"Winners know what they don't know." — Men's Health magazine
"Joe Maddon says the most important thing he has to do as a manager is listen to his players." — Men's Journal magazine
"The human brain is one of nature's most advanced systems, but it nevertheless has a hard time distinguishing the difference between real and imagined threats." — Men's Health magazine
"Advanced results required advanced measures. Does nobody understand this anymore? You have to do the work and you have to sacrifice.... The key to confidence has less to do with inborn talent than it does with ingrained practice." — Men's Fitness magazine
"The other side of it (of getting up very early, other than having private time to be productive) is just straight-up self-discipline. It's not fun to get out of bed early in the morning. When the alarm goes off, it doesn't sing you a song, it hits you in the head with a baseball bat. So, how do you respond to that? Do you crawl underneath your covers and hide, or do you get up, get aggressive, and attack the day."
— Jocko Willink
"Once, instead of paying attention to the class, I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. At the end of the hour, (the professor) asked me what was so much more interesting that his lecture. I held up the book and told him it was the greatest novel written in any language since William Faulkner died. I still think so."
— Bill Clinton
"Like a magnet, two poles lie at the ends of American success: You can succeed by empowering others or you can succeed by exploiting them." — Bloomberg Businessweek magazine
"'You can go run business development for a mobile company!' was one suggestion (from friends who assured her she could easily jump into a money job in the for-profit sector). Well, I would rather die. Seriously. I can't imagine getting up every morning and putting on a little suit and getting into my little car and driving on the highway with my Starbucks and having meetings where I do not care, nothing is at stake; it's about dollars and the bottom line, which is fine, but it's just not motivating to me at all. It's not that I think there's anything wrong with that world, obviously, but it's just not for me and it would be soul destroying."
— Sue Gardner
"Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it."
— Michel de Montaigne
"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time."
— Thomas Merton
"Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm, and harmony."
— Thomas Merton
"Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real."
— Thomas Merton
"We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen."
— Thomas Merton
Friday, October 6, 2017
#377
I still pray with Meg before bed and sometimes we chat a bit. Last night she asked, "Are you on Facebook?" I said yes. She said, "Mom's on Facebook too and I don't like it when she puts anything about me on Facebook." Oh. So maybe Dad shouldn't write about you on a blog for 15 years?
Meg just had a birthday. She's 12. People say teenage daughters are one of life's tests. I have a year to brace myself.
I'm a little worried. Her words were unmistakable: I don't like it when (Mom) puts anything about me on Facebook. And my words, tens of thousands now, are here and seemingly dismissive of this sentiment. But it's okay. I just forgot to mention: none of this is true. It's exaggeration. It's fiction. It's about as unbiased and trustworthy and prescient as modern 'news' (look no further than their presidential election coverage and prediction). Very little about the real Megan is shared. Or over-shared. Definitely not under-shared! Anyway, Megan isn't a ratings-getter. And this is happy; happy is boring; how can it be relevant and worthy if it doesn't inflame and divide?
I apologize. That was cynical. I like it when bright, productive people suggest that cynicism is lazy, unimaginative, too easy. It's definitely low-hanging fruit.
"We learned long ago in this business that dumber and more alarmist always beats complex and nuanced. Big headlines, cartoonish morality, scary criminals at home and foreign menaces abroad, they all sell. We decimated attention spans, rewarded hot-takers over thinkers, and created in audiences powerful addictions to conflict, vitriol, fear, self-righteousness, and race and gender resentment."
— Matt Taibbi, writer and journalist for Rolling Stone
"War is a monstrous failure of imagination."
— Franz Kafka
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
— Einstein
Meg just had a birthday. She's 12. People say teenage daughters are one of life's tests. I have a year to brace myself.
I'm a little worried. Her words were unmistakable: I don't like it when (Mom) puts anything about me on Facebook. And my words, tens of thousands now, are here and seemingly dismissive of this sentiment. But it's okay. I just forgot to mention: none of this is true. It's exaggeration. It's fiction. It's about as unbiased and trustworthy and prescient as modern 'news' (look no further than their presidential election coverage and prediction). Very little about the real Megan is shared. Or over-shared. Definitely not under-shared! Anyway, Megan isn't a ratings-getter. And this is happy; happy is boring; how can it be relevant and worthy if it doesn't inflame and divide?
I apologize. That was cynical. I like it when bright, productive people suggest that cynicism is lazy, unimaginative, too easy. It's definitely low-hanging fruit.
"We learned long ago in this business that dumber and more alarmist always beats complex and nuanced. Big headlines, cartoonish morality, scary criminals at home and foreign menaces abroad, they all sell. We decimated attention spans, rewarded hot-takers over thinkers, and created in audiences powerful addictions to conflict, vitriol, fear, self-righteousness, and race and gender resentment."
— Matt Taibbi, writer and journalist for Rolling Stone
"War is a monstrous failure of imagination."
— Franz Kafka
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
— Einstein
Stuff About Things #6
"Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow."
— Steve Jobs, in his final words before his death, according to his sister Mona Simpson's eulogy
"Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man."
— Tagore
"Words are events, they do things, change things. They transform both speaker and hearer; they feed energy back and forth and amplify it. They feed understanding or emotion back and forth and amplify it."
— Ursula K. Le Guin
"I don't have stage fright, I have life fright."
— comedian Ben Hoffman
From Men's Health magazine: "Practice, practice, practice. That's the message of ongoing research.... 'Students think talent is all that matters,' one study notes, 'Because they rarely see other people practice, but nearly all famous people say that practice is what led to their success.' And 'deliberate practice' is not play or performance time but rather activities designed to improve specific aspects of performance. It means working on your weaknesses, working that sweet spot at the edge of your abilities. It involves frustration, concentration, repetition, and feedback."
"Consistency on the fundamentals is the pathway to mastery."
— Robin Sharma
From Men's Health magazine: "Learn to be optimistic. Gritty people are optimistic people. When optimistic people suffer setbacks, they think of them as temporary and limited in scope. They think with just a bit more effort, they can get over the hump. Pessimists, on the other hand, attribute bad events to big, overpowering causes that have not ruined everything forever and ever. They 'catastrophize.' And whether it's entirely their fault or not, they blame themselves."
"Warning! You think about 60,000 thoughts a day. It's up to you to make sure that you don't use up 59,999 of them with negative, cynical thinking."
— internet meme
"The question is not what we can scorn, or disparage, or find fault with, but what we can love, and value, and appreciate."
— John Ruskin
"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."
— William James
"I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say there is no God."
— Abraham Lincoln
From Wikipedia: "Before he became an actor, Steve Buscemi was busy rescuing people as a New York firefighter from 1980 to 1984. The day after 9/11, he showed up at his old firehouse to volunteer, working twelve-hour shifts for a week, digging through rubble, looking for survivors, bodies, missing firefighters."
"I went to China as one of the members of the Tibetan delegation at the Congress of the People's Republic of China. The parliament in Peking was very disciplined. I noticed that all the members barely dared make a suggestion. They would make a point, but only little corrections in wording [laughs]. Nobody really discussed meaning. Then, in 1956, I had the opportunity to come to India. And here, too, I had the opportunity to visit Indian Parliament. I found big contrast. In Indian Parliament, lots of noise. No discipline. This was a clear sign of complete freedom of expression. Indian parliamentarians, they love to criticize their government. So I realized, this is the meaning of democracy - freedom of speech."
— Dalai Lama
"Whenever we face a problem, we must dialogue. That's the only way. For that, we need inner disarmament."
— Dalai Lama
From Yoga Chicago magazine: "We are called upon to cope with hiccups and hurricanes in our lives... to navigate disruptive, unwanted changes.... Occasionally we have to respond with grace under pressure to troubles and tragedies.... The way we can bounce back from everyday disappointments and extraordinary disasters is through resilience - capacities innate in the brain to respond to the inevitable twists and turns in life flexibly and adaptively. Modern neuroscience is revealing how we can harness these capacities - called neuroplasticity - to rewire our habitual patterns of response to strengthen what are called the 5 C's of coping:
1. Calm: Staying calm in a crisis
2. Clarity: Seeing clearly what's happening, your internal response to what's happening, what needs to happen next, and possibilities from different perspectives
3. Connection: Reaching out for help as needed, learning from others how to be resilient, connecting to resources that expand your options
4. Competence: Calling on skills and competencies learned from previous experiences
5. Courage: Strengthening your faith to persevere in until you come to resolution or acceptance of the difficulty
"Each departed friend is a magnet that attracts us to the next world."
— Jean Paul Richter
"As I've gotten older, I've had more of a tendency to look for people who live by kindness, tolerance, compassion, a gentler way of looking at things."
— Martin Scorsese
"If you don't get physically ill seeing your first rough cut, something's wrong."
— Martin Scorsese
From Men's Journal magazine: "Doug Peacock has barely hunted, or even fired a gun, since his days in Vietnam. He experienced enough killing there, he says, to last several lifetimes. He was 27 when he came home, racked with PTSD, back before there was a name for it. Peacock thought he was alone back then; he didn't know that every soldier experienced some version of this. Once home, he wandered the West... in solitude for weeks at a time. Now no one knows wild grizzlies better.... For nearly his entire adult life, Peacock has been out with the bears - in their country, watching and learning. "It's the one animal out there that can kill and eat you anytime it chooses to - even though it seldom does," he says. "It stands as an instant lesson in humility." Peacock's diplomatic skills are less than zero, but his feist quotient exceeds any known scale of measurement. An iconic eco-warrior and spiritual godfather of monkeywrenching, he's the author of five books.... 'Doug is a real hero to me,' says author Carl Hiaasen, a longtime fly-fishing buddy of Peacock's. "He is the complete American renegade hero — outraged, badass, and deeply, unshakably moral. I've never met anyone quite like him. We should all wage life with a purpose so pure."
"I like to be learning something... I like things that take me out of my head."
— Edward Norton, answering the question, "When are you most happy in your life?"
"Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier."
— Albert Schweitzer
"It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable."
— Moliere
"The smallest good deed is greater than the grandest intention."
— Unknown
"All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action."
— James Russell Lowell
"There's always got to be a struggle. Sure. What else is there? That's what life is made of. I don't know anything else, do you? I mean if there is, tell me about it."
— Van Morrison
— Steve Jobs, in his final words before his death, according to his sister Mona Simpson's eulogy
"Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man."
— Tagore
"Words are events, they do things, change things. They transform both speaker and hearer; they feed energy back and forth and amplify it. They feed understanding or emotion back and forth and amplify it."
— Ursula K. Le Guin
"I don't have stage fright, I have life fright."
— comedian Ben Hoffman
From Men's Health magazine: "Practice, practice, practice. That's the message of ongoing research.... 'Students think talent is all that matters,' one study notes, 'Because they rarely see other people practice, but nearly all famous people say that practice is what led to their success.' And 'deliberate practice' is not play or performance time but rather activities designed to improve specific aspects of performance. It means working on your weaknesses, working that sweet spot at the edge of your abilities. It involves frustration, concentration, repetition, and feedback."
"Consistency on the fundamentals is the pathway to mastery."
— Robin Sharma
From Men's Health magazine: "Learn to be optimistic. Gritty people are optimistic people. When optimistic people suffer setbacks, they think of them as temporary and limited in scope. They think with just a bit more effort, they can get over the hump. Pessimists, on the other hand, attribute bad events to big, overpowering causes that have not ruined everything forever and ever. They 'catastrophize.' And whether it's entirely their fault or not, they blame themselves."
"Warning! You think about 60,000 thoughts a day. It's up to you to make sure that you don't use up 59,999 of them with negative, cynical thinking."
— internet meme
"The question is not what we can scorn, or disparage, or find fault with, but what we can love, and value, and appreciate."
— John Ruskin
"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."
— William James
"I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say there is no God."
— Abraham Lincoln
From Wikipedia: "Before he became an actor, Steve Buscemi was busy rescuing people as a New York firefighter from 1980 to 1984. The day after 9/11, he showed up at his old firehouse to volunteer, working twelve-hour shifts for a week, digging through rubble, looking for survivors, bodies, missing firefighters."
"I went to China as one of the members of the Tibetan delegation at the Congress of the People's Republic of China. The parliament in Peking was very disciplined. I noticed that all the members barely dared make a suggestion. They would make a point, but only little corrections in wording [laughs]. Nobody really discussed meaning. Then, in 1956, I had the opportunity to come to India. And here, too, I had the opportunity to visit Indian Parliament. I found big contrast. In Indian Parliament, lots of noise. No discipline. This was a clear sign of complete freedom of expression. Indian parliamentarians, they love to criticize their government. So I realized, this is the meaning of democracy - freedom of speech."
— Dalai Lama
"Whenever we face a problem, we must dialogue. That's the only way. For that, we need inner disarmament."
— Dalai Lama
From Yoga Chicago magazine: "We are called upon to cope with hiccups and hurricanes in our lives... to navigate disruptive, unwanted changes.... Occasionally we have to respond with grace under pressure to troubles and tragedies.... The way we can bounce back from everyday disappointments and extraordinary disasters is through resilience - capacities innate in the brain to respond to the inevitable twists and turns in life flexibly and adaptively. Modern neuroscience is revealing how we can harness these capacities - called neuroplasticity - to rewire our habitual patterns of response to strengthen what are called the 5 C's of coping:
1. Calm: Staying calm in a crisis
2. Clarity: Seeing clearly what's happening, your internal response to what's happening, what needs to happen next, and possibilities from different perspectives
3. Connection: Reaching out for help as needed, learning from others how to be resilient, connecting to resources that expand your options
4. Competence: Calling on skills and competencies learned from previous experiences
5. Courage: Strengthening your faith to persevere in until you come to resolution or acceptance of the difficulty
"Each departed friend is a magnet that attracts us to the next world."
— Jean Paul Richter
"As I've gotten older, I've had more of a tendency to look for people who live by kindness, tolerance, compassion, a gentler way of looking at things."
— Martin Scorsese
"If you don't get physically ill seeing your first rough cut, something's wrong."
— Martin Scorsese
From Men's Journal magazine: "Doug Peacock has barely hunted, or even fired a gun, since his days in Vietnam. He experienced enough killing there, he says, to last several lifetimes. He was 27 when he came home, racked with PTSD, back before there was a name for it. Peacock thought he was alone back then; he didn't know that every soldier experienced some version of this. Once home, he wandered the West... in solitude for weeks at a time. Now no one knows wild grizzlies better.... For nearly his entire adult life, Peacock has been out with the bears - in their country, watching and learning. "It's the one animal out there that can kill and eat you anytime it chooses to - even though it seldom does," he says. "It stands as an instant lesson in humility." Peacock's diplomatic skills are less than zero, but his feist quotient exceeds any known scale of measurement. An iconic eco-warrior and spiritual godfather of monkeywrenching, he's the author of five books.... 'Doug is a real hero to me,' says author Carl Hiaasen, a longtime fly-fishing buddy of Peacock's. "He is the complete American renegade hero — outraged, badass, and deeply, unshakably moral. I've never met anyone quite like him. We should all wage life with a purpose so pure."
"I like to be learning something... I like things that take me out of my head."
— Edward Norton, answering the question, "When are you most happy in your life?"
"Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier."
— Albert Schweitzer
"It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable."
— Moliere
"The smallest good deed is greater than the grandest intention."
— Unknown
"All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action."
— James Russell Lowell
"There's always got to be a struggle. Sure. What else is there? That's what life is made of. I don't know anything else, do you? I mean if there is, tell me about it."
— Van Morrison
Thursday, October 5, 2017
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Stuff About Things #5
"One of the guards who looked after my grandfather told me how he smuggled me in when I was eight months old, so my grandfather could hug and kiss me."
— Nelson Mandela's granddaughter
"That's a big part of humor: the courage to constantly test out new material to see what works."
— Kevin Hart
There are two rules on the spiritual path:
1. Begin
2. Continue
"I don't have a life, really. I take my kids to school, and I go home, and I write. Then I go pick my kids up, make them dinner, put them to bed, and write some more.... I was reading Jack London and becoming obsessed with the idea of ancestry, thinking a lot about what I was passing on to my kids. I grew up Catholic, and I was thinking about this baby coming into the world that was going to be clean, you know, and I just wanted him to be able to make his own choices. I didn't want him to have my sins. The sins of the father, basically.... Right now, I think I have time to be three things, in no particular order: a father, a husband, and a filmmaker. That's why I don't go out – I have no space for it. I feel like one of those main things would suffer. For what? For drinking? I'm not interested."
— Derek Cianfrance, director, screenwriter, filmmaker
"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
— Thomas Jefferson
"Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential."
— Winston Churchill
"A new generation is growing up in our midst, a generation actuated by new ideas and new principles. It is serious and enthusiastic for these new ideas and its enthusiasm, even when it is misdirected, is, I believe, in the main sincere. But we are living in a skeptical and, if I may use the phrase, a thought-tormented age: and sometimes I fear that this new generation, educated or hyper-educated as it is, will lack those qualities of humanity, of hospitality, of kindly humor which belonged to the older day."
— James Joyce, The Dead, from Dubliners, his 1914 collection of short stories
"What gives light must endure burning."
— Viktor Frankl
"There is no security in life, only opportunity."
— Douglas MacArthur
"Our idea of what is indispensable to human existence and enjoyment had been wonderfully curtailed. A horse, a rifle, and a knife – together with the skill to use them – seemed to make up the whole of life's necessities.... One other lesson our short prairie experience taught us was profound contentment in the present.... Men whose home is in the wilderness, and who love the campfire better than the hearth, they are content and happy in the midst of hardship, privation, and danger. Their cheerfulness is irrepressible, and no people on earth understand better how to make sport of the world.... No one can deny the intrepid bravery of these men, their intelligence and the bold frankness of their character, free from all that is mean and sordid. Yet for the moment the extreme roughness of their manners half inclines one to forget their heroic qualities. Most of them seem without the least perception of delicacy or propriety, though among them individuals may be found in whose manners there is plain courtesy, while their features bespeak a noble spirit equal to any enterprise."
— Francis Parkman, The Oregon Trail, 1849
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."
— Pablo Picasso
"I don't do drugs. I am drugs."
— Salvador Dali
"Great minds ask great questions."
— Michael Gelb
"Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them."
— Winston Churchill
"To govern is to serve, not to rule."
— Seneca
"The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one."
— Albert Einstein
"It is always your next move."
— Napoleon Hill
From Men's Journal magazine in 2012 (I am partial to Motorola): "The patent wars have ramped up with Motorola, Google, Apple, and Microsoft battling for giant patent portfolios that will allow them to compete with as little financial and technological friction as possible, virtually blotting out smaller innovators."
From Men's Journal magazine: "There's something to be said about keeping certain childhood enthusiasms alive.... Stay in touch with your younger self."
"Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans."
— John Lennon
"All we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about."
— Charles Kingsley
"Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. (Don't let either be broken.)
— Kahlil Gibran
"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
— Jesus
"The positive effect of kindness on the immune system and on the increased production of serotonin has been proven in research studies. Serotonin is a naturally occurring substance in the body that makes us feel comfortable and peaceful. In fact, the role of most anti-depressants is to stimulate the production of serotonin chemically. Research has shown that a simple act of kindness directed toward another improves the functioning of the immune system and stimulates the production of serotonin in both the recipient and the person extending the kindness. Even more amazing is that people observing the act of kindness have similar beneficial results. Imagine this! Kindness extended, received, or observed beneficially impacts the physical health and feelings of everyone involved!"
— Wayne Dyer
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."
— Dalai Lama
— Nelson Mandela's granddaughter
"That's a big part of humor: the courage to constantly test out new material to see what works."
— Kevin Hart
There are two rules on the spiritual path:
1. Begin
2. Continue
"I don't have a life, really. I take my kids to school, and I go home, and I write. Then I go pick my kids up, make them dinner, put them to bed, and write some more.... I was reading Jack London and becoming obsessed with the idea of ancestry, thinking a lot about what I was passing on to my kids. I grew up Catholic, and I was thinking about this baby coming into the world that was going to be clean, you know, and I just wanted him to be able to make his own choices. I didn't want him to have my sins. The sins of the father, basically.... Right now, I think I have time to be three things, in no particular order: a father, a husband, and a filmmaker. That's why I don't go out – I have no space for it. I feel like one of those main things would suffer. For what? For drinking? I'm not interested."
— Derek Cianfrance, director, screenwriter, filmmaker
"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
— Thomas Jefferson
"Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential."
— Winston Churchill
"A new generation is growing up in our midst, a generation actuated by new ideas and new principles. It is serious and enthusiastic for these new ideas and its enthusiasm, even when it is misdirected, is, I believe, in the main sincere. But we are living in a skeptical and, if I may use the phrase, a thought-tormented age: and sometimes I fear that this new generation, educated or hyper-educated as it is, will lack those qualities of humanity, of hospitality, of kindly humor which belonged to the older day."
— James Joyce, The Dead, from Dubliners, his 1914 collection of short stories
"What gives light must endure burning."
— Viktor Frankl
"There is no security in life, only opportunity."
— Douglas MacArthur
"Our idea of what is indispensable to human existence and enjoyment had been wonderfully curtailed. A horse, a rifle, and a knife – together with the skill to use them – seemed to make up the whole of life's necessities.... One other lesson our short prairie experience taught us was profound contentment in the present.... Men whose home is in the wilderness, and who love the campfire better than the hearth, they are content and happy in the midst of hardship, privation, and danger. Their cheerfulness is irrepressible, and no people on earth understand better how to make sport of the world.... No one can deny the intrepid bravery of these men, their intelligence and the bold frankness of their character, free from all that is mean and sordid. Yet for the moment the extreme roughness of their manners half inclines one to forget their heroic qualities. Most of them seem without the least perception of delicacy or propriety, though among them individuals may be found in whose manners there is plain courtesy, while their features bespeak a noble spirit equal to any enterprise."
— Francis Parkman, The Oregon Trail, 1849
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."
— Pablo Picasso
"I don't do drugs. I am drugs."
— Salvador Dali
"Great minds ask great questions."
— Michael Gelb
"Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them."
— Winston Churchill
"To govern is to serve, not to rule."
— Seneca
"The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one."
— Albert Einstein
"It is always your next move."
— Napoleon Hill
From Men's Journal magazine in 2012 (I am partial to Motorola): "The patent wars have ramped up with Motorola, Google, Apple, and Microsoft battling for giant patent portfolios that will allow them to compete with as little financial and technological friction as possible, virtually blotting out smaller innovators."
From Men's Journal magazine: "There's something to be said about keeping certain childhood enthusiasms alive.... Stay in touch with your younger self."
"Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans."
— John Lennon
"All we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about."
— Charles Kingsley
"Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. (Don't let either be broken.)
— Kahlil Gibran
"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
— Jesus
"The positive effect of kindness on the immune system and on the increased production of serotonin has been proven in research studies. Serotonin is a naturally occurring substance in the body that makes us feel comfortable and peaceful. In fact, the role of most anti-depressants is to stimulate the production of serotonin chemically. Research has shown that a simple act of kindness directed toward another improves the functioning of the immune system and stimulates the production of serotonin in both the recipient and the person extending the kindness. Even more amazing is that people observing the act of kindness have similar beneficial results. Imagine this! Kindness extended, received, or observed beneficially impacts the physical health and feelings of everyone involved!"
— Wayne Dyer
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."
— Dalai Lama
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