Ray's Daily

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

Albert Schweitzer

I had a great day yesterday digging back into my records and contacting old colleagues at the request of the US Fund for UNICEF. They have a worthwhile project underway as a follow-up to the successful Kiwanis International/UNICEF partnership that resulted in protecting millions of new born babies from mental retardation around the world each year. Since I had played a major role in the past effort and retained much of our history while continuing to retain contacts with some of the major players it was relatively easy to get done what was needed to help make the current effort possible.

As most of you know I feel that my years with the Kiwanis/UNICEF project were the most important years of my working life. Our joint effort and that of the partners helping to virtually eliminate the worlds leading preventable cause of mental retardation, Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD) provided an opportunity to do what few people get to do and that is make life better for millions. I will always be grateful that I was selected to be a player.

I cannot describe the good feelings I had as I pulled up anecdotes, statistics, and reports of past progress from retained computer discs. I was moved by the enthusiastic response I got from past partners who I had not spoken to for sometime. Even better was the fact that it appears that the work paid off and that the project deadlines will be met and positive outcomes will be made possible.

At the end of the day I again realized the value of revisiting the best periods of our past. But in this case it was not just basking in the warmth of fond memories; it was the ability to connect with some of the people who enriched my lfe. I realize now that what I have failed to do in the past was to reconnect once in awhile and let people know how much I appreciate them and what they have done to make my best times possible. It seems we move so fast these days that we don’t take time to hold on to folks that have given there time, hands and often their hearts as they brightened our lives. In a small way this Daily allows me to stay loosely connected but maybe that is not enough.

How about you and I deciding that we are not going to let the important people in our lives linger only in our memories but we are going to drop them a note or give them a call once in awhile to let them know how much we have appreciated all the have done and for so many and what they continue to do. In my experience expressed gratitude is the soil from which even greater accomplishments can be harvested.

~~~

“Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can – there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.”

Sarah Caldwell

~~~

A driver pulled up beside a rundown farmhouse. He got out and knocked at the door. An elderly woman answered the door, and he asked her for directions to Des Moines.

"Don’t know," the woman said.

He got back in his car and pulled away. Then he heard voices. He looked in his rear view mirror and saw the woman and an equally old man waving for him to come back. So he made a U-turn and drove up to them.

"This is my husband," the old woman said. "He doesn’t know how to get to Des Moines either!"

~~~

Everybody wants to do something to help, but nobody wants to be the first.

Pearl Bailey

~~~

Two paramedics are sent to check on a 92-year-old man who has become disoriented. They decide to take him to the hospital for evaluation.

While the paramedics are rushing him to the hospital with sirens blaring, one of them talks to the man to determine how aware he is.

Leaning close, the paramedic asks, "Sir, do you know what we’re doing right now?"

The old fellow slowly looks up at him, then gazes out the ambulance window.

"Oh," he replies, "I’d say about 50, maybe 55."

~~~

When I was young we used to go "skinny dipping," now I just "chunky dunk."

~~~

Mary was married to a male chauvinist. They both worked full time, but he never did anything around the house and certainly not any housework. That, he declared, was woman’s work.

One evening Mary arrived home from work to find the children bathed, a load of wash in the washing machine and another in the dryer, dinner on the stove and a beautifully set table, complete with flowers. She was astonished, and she immediately wanted to know what was going on. It turned out that Charley, her husband, had read a magazine article that suggested working wives would be more romantically inclined if they weren’t so tired from having to do all the housework in addition to holding down a full-time job.

The next day, she couldn’t wait to tell her friends in the office. "How did it work out?" they asked. "Well, it was a great dinner," Mary said. "Charley even cleaned up, helped the kids with their homework, folded the laundry and put everything away."

"But what about afterward?" her friends wanted to know. "It didn’t work out," Mary said. "Charley was too tired."

~~~

"You know you’re getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you’re down there."

George Burns

~~~

An American attorney had just finished a guest lecture at a law school in Italy when an Italian lawyer approached him and asked, "Is it true that a person can fall down on a sidewalk in your country and then sue the landowners for lots of money?"

Told that it was true, the lawyer turned to his partner and started speaking rapidly in Italian. When they stopped, the American attorney asked if they wanted to go to America to practice law.

"No, no," one replied. "We want to go to America and fall down on sidewalks."

~~~

"The longest word in the English language is the one that follows the phrase, ‘And now a word from our sponsor’."

Hal Eaton

~~~

A group of burglars were robbing a bank. One of them pointed a gun at a teller’s head and shouted: "Give me all your money, or you’ll be GEOGRAPHY!"

The cashier laughed and said, "You mean H I S T O R Y!"

The burglar shouted back, "Don’t change the subject."

~~~

If you want the last word in an argument, say, "You’re right."

~~~

He loved living in Staten Island, but he wasn’t crazy about the ferry. Miss a ferry late at night, and you have to spend the next hour or so wandering the deserted streets of lower Manhattan.

So when he spotted a ferry no more than fifteen feet from the dock, he decided he wouldn’t subject himself to an hour’s wait.  He made a running leap and landed on his hands and knees, a little bruised maybe, but safe on deck.

He got up, brushed himself off, and announced proudly to a bystander, "Well, I made that one, didn’t I?"

"Sure did," the bystander said. "But you should have waited a minute or two.  The ferry is just about to dock."

~~~

A recipe is a series of step by step instructions for preparing ingredients you forgot to buy, in utensils you do not own, to make a dish that even the dog won’t eat.

~~~

“We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.”

G. K. Chesterton

~~~

Stay well, do good work, and have fun.

The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.

Eleanor Roosevelt

I was reading the other day how we each live within our own virtual environment. It is not only housed in the physical places where we live, work and play it is also bound by the cultural and experiential wall we have built around ourselves. That got me thinking about some of my friends who have expressed their feeling of loneliness and dislike of the drudgery resulting from uninteresting jobs and experiences. As I thought about it I realized that I too have sometimes in the past let the invisible fence keep me from looking beyond my virtual environment.

Fortunately I often had guides, mentors and fortunate experiences that took me outside my boring but comfortable existence. And you know what? every time I did venture out I found more than I expected and the walls that surrounded my virtual abode started to disappear. Why is it that so many of us feel trapped by our lives? Why do we think we must make major changes and take great risks when all we have to do is go beyond our self imposed walls just every so often and then not very far to add a little zest to our existence? If you’re like I am you will find yourself drawn out of your shell and into a virtual landscape filled with treasure and wonder after you take those first few steps.

So my dear friend, go see a play, volunteer to ring bells for an afternoon or two this Christmas season, or just go out and play, you know more than I do what is out there just waiting for you. And oh by the way, when you do come out please give me a wave, I’ll be there since I have much more yet to see.

Here is a sad poem written about someone who has been locked up in her virtual reality, I am glad that it is not about you.

Excuses

Author: Clair Peach

I’d like to stop the hunger in the world,

I’d like to help stop the disease

I’d like to help make the poorer much richer,

I’d like to stop all the pain please

But I can’t because

My husband might not like it if I’m late

My kids will be needing their tea

The house is a mess and I’m needing a rest

The goody goody stuff will just have to wait

I’d like to give money to help poor children grow

I’d like to stop people dying from want

I’d like to stop children being hurt, bruised and worse

I’d like to make a difference in the world

But if I do

People will think I’m a soft touch you know

They’d take for a ride you can bet

I’d run out of time and be a tired old wretch

But maybe- well next year, yes you bet!

~~~

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.”

Helen Keller

~~~

Office Rules

1) If it rings, put it on hold.

2) If it clanks, call the repairman.

3) If it whistles, ignore it.

4) If it’s a friend, take a break.

5) If it’s the boss, look busy.

6) If it talks, take notes.

7) If it’s handwritten, type it.

8) If it’s typed, copy it.

9) If it’s copied, file it.

10) If it’s Friday, forget it!

~~~

It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

~~~

A new flood is foretold and nothing can be done to prevent it; in six days the waters will wipe out the world.

The leader of Buddhism appears on TV and pleads with everyone to become a Buddhist; that way, they will at least find salvation in heaven.

The Pope goes on TV with a similar message: "It is still not too late to accept Jesus," he says.

The Chief Rabbi of Israel takes a slightly different approach: "We have six days to learn how to live under water."

~~~

A new convert to Catholicism decided to go to confession to deal with his transgression. In the confessional, he told the priest that he had sinned.

"What was your sin, my son?" asked the priest. "I stole some lumber, Father," replied the man.

"How much lumber did you steal?" asked the priest. "Father, I built my German Shepherd dog a nice new doghouse."

The priest replied, "Well, that’s not so bad." The man continued, "Father, I also built myself a 4-car garage." "Well, now, that’s a little more serious." "Father, there’s more. In addition to the doghouse, the 4-car garage, I also built a 5 bedroom, 4 bath house!"

With a pause, the priest finally spoke. "That is a little more serious. I’m afraid you’ll have to make a novena."

"Father, I’m not sure what a ‘novena’ is, but if you’ve got the blueprints, I’ve got the lumber!"

~~~

"Most people would like to be delivered from temptation, but would like it to keep in touch."

~~~

A man was in front of me coming out of church one day, and the preacher was standing at the door as he always is to shake hands.  He grabbed the man by the hand and pulled him aside.  The Pastor said to him, "You need to join the Army of the Lord!"

The man replied, "I’m already in the Army of the Lord, Pastor."

Pastor questioned, "How come I don’t see you except at Christmas and Easter?"

He whispered back, "I’m in the secret service."

~~~

The best things in life are free…. or have no interest or payments for one full year.

~~~

Paul was not the brightest guy around.  Every day, when he walked home from work, he would get stopped by three nasty men and they would beat him up and steal his money. Finally, Paul decided that it would serve his best interest to walk a different route, but also take some self-defense classes so this wouldn’t happen again. He joined a karate class and soon was doing very well with it. So, one day, on the way home from work, Paul confidently decided to take his old route home and, sure enough, there they were. He walked up to them and the battle ensued. The next afternoon, Paul went to his karate class with a black eye, a broken nose and a busted lip.

His instructor was shocked and asked for an explanation.

"Well," explained Paul, "I took my old way home last night so I could beat those guys up who used to steal my money."

His instructor said, "What happened?"

Paul replied, "They jumped me before I could get my socks and shoes off!"

~~~

Some people drink deeply from the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.

Grant M. Bright

~~~

The passengers were leaving the plane after landing, and one smiling, satisfied passenger paused to congratulate the flight attendant.

"Stewardess," he said happily, "I want to compliment you and the crew and especially the captain for getting here right time. It’s not often that an airline gets to where it’s going exactly when they claim it will. I’m going to call your home office and let them know how pleased I am."

"Why, thank you, sir," the flight attendant answered, "but I think you should know this is yesterday’s flight."

~~~

“If you wait for opportunities to occur, you will be one of the crowd.”

Edward de Bono

~~~

Stay well, do good work, and have fun.

“It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive.”

C. W. Leadbeater

I had an interesting conversation with a friend this morning. He told me about an article that reported that a recent study said that the majority of watchers form an opinion in the first few seconds of a short video. I shared with him that I had just written in my pocket notebook a statement from a friend’s book that had identified that we each have different realities. Our conversation soon drifted to how perceptions differ. I used the example of my standing only behind an automobile seeing only the back and its somewhat narrow image with little ornamentation, while someone else saw only the side seeing a much longer image with doors, mirrors and the like. We both we would be looking at the same object but we would see something much different. If we never move our separate realities would be accurate individually but far from complete enough to fully describe the car.

In addition I told my friend that when I am presented with an image for only a brief moment I suspect my memory adds to what I don’t see. I feel that my experiences, personal bias, and background tend to form a mental definition of what I see. If the picture is of a poorly dressed unshaven individual I might assume I am seeing a derelict as an example.

My concern is that we may be moving to a time when many people see the world only from one place, a place where they only see and hear news and information slanted by opinion or ideology. I also worry that our limiting ourselves to brief images and sound bites, in effect information shorthand, may result in our becoming quick to judge because we only see the surface and never go deep enough to find out what might be something much different looked with more than a glance.

I hope I am wrong for I become concerned when we observe and decide in haste for soon we may lose our ability to discern the difference between a myopic reality and that which is truly real. After thinking about my friend’s book and my conversation with my buddy this morning I decided that I want to join the Society for the Prevention of Conclusion Jumping and always ask myself if what I see is really all there is.

~~~

“Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.”

Edward de Bono

~~~

The following short quiz consists of 4 questions and tells whether you are qualified to be a "manager".

The questions aren’t that difficult.

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference, all the animals attend except one. Which animal does not attend?

4. There is a river you must cross. But it is inhabited by crocodiles. How do you manage it?

-= ANSWERS =-

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator? The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe and close the door. This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.

2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator? Wrong Answer : Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant and close the refrigerator. Correct Answer : Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your actions.

3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference, all the animals attend except one. Which animal does not attend? Correct Answer : The Elephant. The Elephant is in the refrigerator. This tests your memory. OK, even if you did not answer the first three questions, correctly, you still have one more chance to show your abilities.

4. There is a river you must cross. But it is inhabited by crocodiles. How do you manage it?

Correct Answer: You swim across. All the Crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting! This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

According to Andersen Consulting World wide, around 90% of the professionals they tested got all questions wrong. But many pre-schoolers got several correct answers. Andersen Consulting says this conclusively disproves the theory that most management consultants have the brains of a four year old.

~~~

If in doubt, make it sound convincing.

~~~

She said:

Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused.

A clean house is a sign of a misspent life.

Help keep the kitchen clean – eat out.

Countless number of people have eaten in this kitchen and gone on to lead normal lives.

My next house will have no kitchen — just vending machines.

Gardening forever .  .  .  Housework, never!

Dull women have immaculate houses.

~~~

An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys.

~~~

Top ten reasons you’re too old to be trick or treating:

10.  You get winded by knocking on the door.

9.   You have to have another child chew the candy for you.

8.   You request the choice of a high fiber candy only.

7.   When the treater drops a candy bar in your bag, you lose your balance and fall over.

6.   People say "Great Harry Potter mask!" and you’re not wearing a mask.

5.   When the door opens you yell, "Trick or…" and can’t remember the  rest.

4.   By the end of the night, you have a bag full of restraining orders.

3.   You have to choose carefully a costume that won’t dislodge your hairpiece.

2.   You’re the only Power Ranger in the neighborhood with a walker.

1.   You avoid going to houses where your ex-wives live.

~~~

She said, "My Husband And I Married For Better Or Worse… ….He Couldn’t Do Better And I Couldn’t Do Worse"

~~~

A woman answered her front door and found two little boys holding a list. "Lady," one of them explained, "we’re on a scavenger hunt, and we still need three grains of wheat, a pork-chop bone and a piece of used carbon paper to earn a dollar."

"Wow," the woman replied. "Who sent you on such a challenging hunt?"

"Our baby-sitter’s boyfriend."

~~~

It is the tragedy of the world that no one knows what he doesn’t know and the less a man knows, the more sure he is that he knows everything.

Joyce Cary

~~~

Stay well, do good work, and have fun.

“A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.”

Oscar Wilde

This morning I was reading an article by Christine Rosen entitled “In the beginning was the word” published in the current issue of The Wilson Quarterly. In the article Rosen wrote:

Since the migration of the word from page to screen is still in its early stages, predictions about the future of print are hazardous at best. When Time magazine named “YOU!” its person of the year in 2006, the choice was meant as a celebratory recognition of our new digital world and its many opportunities for self-expression. We are all writers now, crafters of our own images and creators of our own online worlds. But so far this power has made us less, not more, willing to submit ourselves to the singular visions of writers and artists and to learn from them difficult truths about the human condition. It has encouraged us to substitute images and simplistic snippets of text for the range, precision, and peculiar beauty of written language, with its unique power to express complex and abstract ideas. Recent surveys by the National Endowment for the Arts reveal that fewer Americans read literature for pleasure than in the past; writers of serious fiction face a daunting publishing market and a reading public that has come to prefer the celebrity memoir to the new literary novel.

As I have suggested before we will lose much about life if we only see it in the broadest of terms. Rosen’s article suggested to me that more may very well mean less from the standpoint of exercising our brain and analytical powers. In the same issue another author suggest the opposite, he implies that our living in a digest world where we see only results and opinion presented as factual result allows us the know more. Where I think he misses the point is when he dismisses the idea that too much unfiltered information does not overwhelm us because we control what goes into our personal Reader’s Digest, that is limiting what we see to only what we wish to see. For me that is often precisely the problem, for if we filter out the details, information that we don’t agree with, and limit the information that makes it to our personal digest to only that which is easy and comfortable, we will soon find that we no longer think we will only absorb.

I am sorry if I ramble too much about my fears, I do so because I find that there is so much polarization amongst many of my fellow citizens which makes constructive discussion almost impossible. Both sides prove their cases with the facts they agree with without regard to countervailing information. I long for a return to the day when fact was fact and not modified by opinion, the days when dialogue based on in depth understanding of the facts allowed us to jointly arrive at an agreed upon truth on which we could take constructive action.

I know my recollections are not necessarily the way the past was for everyone. An author friend reminded me recently that our bright and shiny “Father knows best” world of the fifties applied to only some of us and missed far too many of us. What she says is true, so I now have decided that I want to return to the best some of us have seen in the past and build on the best we remember while adding to it the best we can become.

~~~

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.

Thomas Jefferson

~~~

"Horoscopes For Your Job Position…"

1) MARKETING:  You are ambitious yet stupid. You chose a marketing degree to avoid having to study in college, concentrating instead on drinking and socializing which is pretty much what your job responsibilities are now. Least compatible with Sales.

2) SALES:  Laziest of all signs, often referred to as "marketing without a degree." You are also self centered and paranoid. Unless someone calls you and begs you to take their money, you like to avoid contact with customers so you can "concentrate on the big picture." You seek admiration for your golf game throughout your life.

3) TECHNOLOGY:  Unable to control anything in your personal life, you are instead content to completely control everything that happens at your workplace. Often even YOU don’t understand what you are saying but who the heck can tell. It is written that Geeks shall inherit the Earth.

4) ENGINEERING:  One of only two signs that actually studied in school. It is said that ninety percent of all Personal Ads are placed by engineers. You can be happy with yourself; your office is full of all the latest "ergodynamic" gadgets. However, we all know what is really causing your "carpal tunnel syndrome."

5) ACCOUNTING:  The only other sign that studied in school. You are mostly immune from office politics. You are the most feared person in the organization; combined with your extreme organizational traits, the majority of rumors concerning you say that you are completely insane. Oh, and usually the first to be incarcerated.

6) HUMAN RESOURCES:  Ironically, given your access to confidential information, you tend to be the biggest gossip within the organization. Possibly the only other person that does less work than marketing, you are unable to return any calls today because you have to get a haircut, have lunch AND then mail a letter.

7) MANAGEMENT/MIDDLE MANAGEMENT:  Catty, cut-throat, yet completely spineless, you are destined to remain at your current job for the rest of your life. Unable to make a single decision you tend to measure your worth by the number of meetings you can schedule for yourself. Best suited to marry other "Middle Managers" as everyone in you social circle is a "Middle Manager."

8) SENIOR MANAGEMENT:  See above – Same sign, different title.

9) CUSTOMER SERVICE:  Bright, cheery, positive, you are a fifty cent cab ride from taking your own life. As children very few of you asked your parents for a little cubicle for your room and a headset so you could pretend to play "Customer Service." Continually passed over for promotions, your best bet is to sleep with your manager.

10) CONSULTANT:  Lacking any specific knowledge, you use acronyms to avoid revealing your utter lack of experience.  You have convinced yourself that your "skills" are in demand, and that you could get a higher paying job with any other organization in a heartbeat. You will spend an eternity contemplating these career opportunities without ever taking direct action.

11) RECRUITER, "HEADHUNTER":  As a "person" that profits from the success of others, you are disdained by most people who actually work for a living. Paid on commission and susceptible to alcoholism, your ulcers and frequent heart attacks correspond directly with fluctuations in the stock market.

12) PARTNER, PRESIDENT, CEO:  You are brilliant or lucky.  Your inability to figure out complex systems such as the fax machine suggest the latter.

~~~

Our lives would run a lot more smoothly if second thoughts came first.

~~~

An insurance salesman was trying to persuade a housewife that she should take out life insurance. "Suppose your husband were to die," he said, "What would you get?"

The housewife thought for a while, and then said, "Oh, a parrot, I think.  Then the house wouldn’t seem so quiet."

~~~

Nine-tenths of wisdom is appreciation. Go find somebody’s hand and squeeze it, while there’s time.

Dale Dauten

~~~

"Oh, Laura!" cried her neighbor, "I’m so very sorry to hear about the loss of your husband.  He was such a wonderful man.  I’m sure he left you well provided for, didn’t he?"

Laura dabbed at her eyes and muttered, "Yes, he was a very caring husband and he left me almost half a million dollars in his will.  I miss him so much that I’d give fifty thousand just to have him back!"

~~~

No one ever says "It’s only a game," when their team is winning.

~~~

A magician was working on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.  The audience would be different each week, so the magician allowed himself to do the same tricks over and over again.  There was only one problem:  The captain’s parrot saw the shows each week and began to understand how the magician did every trick.  Once he understood he started shouting in the middle of the show:

"Look, it’s not the same hat."

"Look, he is hiding the flowers under the table."

"Hey, why are all the cards the Ace of Spades?"

The magician was furious but couldn’t do anything; it was, after all, the captain’s parrot. One day the ship had an accident and sank.  The magician found himself on a piece of wood in the middle of the ocean with the parrot, of course.

They stared at each other with hate, but did not utter a word. This went on for a day and another and another.

After a week the parrot said:  "OK, I give up.  Where’s the boat?"

~~~

There is nothing to fear except the persistent refusal to find out the truth, the persistent refusal to analyze the causes of happenings.

Dorothy Thompson:

~~~

Stay well, do good work, and have fun.

“You seldom listen to me, and when you do you don’t hear, and when you do hear you hear wrong, and even when you hear right you change it so fast that it’s never the same.”

Marjorie Kellogg

I understand how Kellogg feels. The other day I was reading a critique from a reader of a book written by Laurie King, the writer said that King spent too much time embellishing her prose and would be worth reading if she wasn’t so descriptive. For me the great gift that King provides me is the depth of her writing and the texture it provides to her work. You can almost feel the environment as the story unfolds. As I thought about the criticism I decided that it was probably due to the critic living in today’s abridged world.

These days too much of our news in comes in short bursts only touching on the big picture while holding back the opportunity to get behind the story. Most of our movies are rapid paced non-stop visuals that never give us time to savor the moment. We tweet, we text, we speed up, we cut out and many of us go so fast that we don’t have time to ponder what we have seen or heard. Of course I know I generalize and not everything comes in digest form nor is everyone one willing to substitute shortened fact gathering for thoughtful information processing but it may become harder to do so as newspapers fold, thoughtful magazines shift editorial content to Wam-Bam journalism in order to pander to the “I don’t have time to think” crowd, and everything continues to speed up.

Too many of us are so busy keeping up that we don’t have time for the meaningful things that we could find that enrich our minds and souls. I don’t know about you but I find the abridged world to be distasteful and I am unwilling to substitute someone else’s bullet points for real observation and dialogue. My solution is to be more the tortoise than the hare and even if the hare draws a conclusion faster than I do at least I’ll know why I decided to think the way I do. I can’t live with knowing a little about a lot of things and giving up knowing a lot about those things that have meaning for me.

Here is some advice from Ralph Marston that we all probably could use.

When you attempt to do too much too fast you end up with a lot of anxiety and not much else. Slow down, calm down, focus your attention without rushing too fast, and you’ll be able to achieve so much more.

Instead of worrying about what you’re missing, or what else you could be doing, put your heart, mind and spirit fully into what you’re doing now. Life is indeed precious, and each moment is irreplaceable, yet that’s no reason to make the moments so frenzied and hectic. Rather than spinning your wheels like a car stuck in the snow, slow down and calmly get some traction. Moving slowly and deliberately forward is far better than frantically going nowhere.

How many things do you see as urgent just because you’re afraid for them not to be? Imagine how much more ground you would gain if you took the time to do it right instead of busily hurrying through.

Life is best experienced when you take the time to really live it. Move steadily ahead, fast enough to get there, and slow enough to clearly see, appreciate and arrive at where you’re going.

~~~

“Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively”

Voltaire

~~~

A journalist assigned to the Jerusalem bureau takes an apartment overlooking the Wailing Wall. Every day when she looks out, she sees an old Jewish man praying vigorously. So the journalist goes down and introduces herself to the old man. She asks: "You come every day to the wall. How long have you done that and what are you praying for?"

The old man replies, "I have come here to pray every day for 25 years. In the morning I pray for world peace and then for the brotherhood of man. I go home have a cup of tea and I come back and pray for the eradication of illness and disease from the earth."

The journalist is amazed. "How does it make you feel to come here every day for 25 years and pray for these things?" she asks.

The old man looks at her sadly. "Like I’m talking to a wall."

~~~

"I’m looking for a perfume to overpower men – I’m sick of karate."

Phyllis Diller

~~~

Jim had an awful day fishing on the lake, sitting in the blazing sun all day without catching a single one. On his way home, he stopped at the supermarket and ordered four catfish.

He told the fish salesman, "Pick four large ones out and throw them at me, will you?"

"Why do you want me to throw them at you?"

"Because I want to tell my wife that I caught them."

"Okay, but I suggest that you take the orange roughy."

"But why?"

"Because your wife came in earlier today and said that if you came by, I should tell you to take orange roughy. She prefers that for supper tonight."

~~~

Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.

~~~

She said:

Kitchen closed – – this chick has had it!

Martha Stewart doesn’t live here!!

I’m creative; you can’t expect me to be neat too!

So this isn’t Home Sweet Home…  Adjust!

Ring Bell for Maid Service…If no answer do it yourself!

I clean house every other day….  Today is the other day!

~~~

If I throw a stick, will you leave?

~~~

The mother of a problem child was advised by a psychiatrist, "You are far too upset and worried about your son.  I suggest you take tranquillizers regularly."

On her next visit the psychiatrist asked, "Have the tranquillizers calmed you down?"

"Yes" the mother answered.

"And how is your son now?" he asked.

"Who cares?" she replied.

~~~

Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.

George Bernard Shaw

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He told me: As I was dropping off my son at his daycare the other day, I overheard some of the other children talking about their siblings.

"My brother takes karate lessons," bragged one little boy.

"My sister takes gymnastics," said another.

Not to be outdone, the littlest child in the group piped up and said, "My sister takes antibiotics!"

~~~

"Drive slow and enjoy the scenery – drive fast and join the scenery."

Doug Horton

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Stay well, do good work, and have fun.