Publication Suspended
NOTICE
Ray’s Daily Publication will be suspended until Monday May 17, 2010
I have to close up shop until next Monday. I will be hyper-busy doing good stuff. I will be participating in the opening of a new exhibit at the Indianapolis War Memorial, meeting with numerous folks on a variety of their interests, assisting in a joint study on Neighborhood Livability, working at a downtown event raising money to help feed the homeless, spending a day registering volunteers that will be helping at the regional Special Olympics championships and a few other things. Life will be full and my energy tested so I have decided that I will convert Ray’s Daily prep time into naptime for a few days in order to shore me up. Make sure you keep smiling while I am off, I’ll be watching.
~~~
Here are a few thoughts from my friends list of life lessons:
- It’s OK to let your children see you cry. – I don’t know who it was who said that the brave don’t cry for I think the truly brave do cry. If we mask our concern and sensitivity we may soon bury them. I really care for people who care especially those who care enough to shed a tear once in awhile and don’t care who sees them do it.
- Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about. – I spend many hours listening to people who share their life stories, some are much worse then mine, some better, but all are different. Life is not a competition measured by won-loss between each other. We live our own lives, set our own goals and make our own choices the secret is to do the best we can.
- Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks. – This is so true, while we all will feel pain it does not have to linger, everyday is a new beginning and more times than not how it turns out will depend on our attitude.
- Over prepare, then go with the flow. – The Boy Scouts were right, be prepared. Worry and fear should never drive us but skillful contingency preparedness can let us come down running when ever we are faced with new challenges not matter if they are bad or good.
- Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple. – This is one of my favorites; life is to be enjoyed not regimented and uninteresting. Be silly, make people laugh, act a little crazy and wear what you want, today will soon be over and if you don’t have fun it will be another day entered into to the boring and lost column.
~~~
Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.
Khalil Gibran
~~~
She said: My husband, Michael, and I were at a restaurant with his boss, a rather stern older man. When Michael began a tale, which I was sure he had told before, I gave him a kick under the table. There was no response, so I gave him another poke. Still the story went on.
Suddenly he stopped, grinned and said, "Oh, but I’ve told you this one before, haven’t I?"
We all chuckled and changed the subject. Later, on the dance floor, I asked my husband why it had taken him so long to get my message.
"What do you mean?" he replied. "I cut the story off as soon as you kicked me."
"But I kicked you twice and it still took you awhile to stop!"
Suddenly we realized what had happened. Sheepishly we returned to our table. The boss smiled and said, "Don’t worry. After the second one I figured it wasn’t for me, so I passed it along!"
~~~
The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the old man who will not laugh is a fool.
George Santayana
~~~
I was setting up a large, cast aluminum, decorative sundial in my yard that I had purchased from a garden catalog.
A neighbor, an old Florida fellow, was leaning on the fence watching my progress and asked, "What the heck’s that for?"
I explained, "It’s a sundial. See, the sun will hit that small triangular spike and cast a shadow on the face of the sundial. Then, as the sun moves across the sky, the shadow also moves across the calibrated dial, enabling a person to determine the correct time."
My neighbor shook his head and muttered, "Huh, what will they think of next?!"
~~~
What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.
Yiddish proverb
~~~
Walpole had lived in his loft for six months, and by now it was filled with the paintings he had created. He worked day and night, stopping only occasionally for something to eat. He thought little about food and less about sleep. But what he thought about least of all was his rent. As a result, his landlord now stood before him, demanding the three months’ rent Walpole owed on the loft.
"Give me a couple of weeks," Walpole pleaded. "I know I’m on the verge of making some sales."
"Absolutely not," the landlord said. "You gave me that story last month. You won’t get another day’s credit from me."
"Look," Walpole said, "think of it as an investment. Someday this loft will be famous, and you’ll be able to charge a fortune for it. In a few years, people will come into this disgusting loft and whisper, ‘Walpole used to paint here.’"
"Pay your rent now," the landlord said, "or they’ll be able to say it tomorrow morning."
~~~
For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press 3.
Alice Kahn
~~~
A woman rushed into the supermarket to pick up a few items. She headed for the express line where the clerk was talking on the phone with his back turned to her.
"Excuse me," she said. "I’m in a hurry. Could you check me out, please?"
The clerk turned, stared at her for a second, looked her up and down, smiled and said, "Not bad."
~~~
Work: It isn’t just for sleeping anymore.
~~~
My dad and I were talking the other night about love and marriage. He told me he knew as early as their wedding what marriage to my mom would be like.
It seems the minister asked my mom, "Do you take this man to be your husband?"
And she said, "I do."
Then the minister asked my dad, "Do you take this woman to be your wife?" And my mom said, "He does."
~~~
Life leaps like a geyser for those willing to drill through the rock of inertia.
~~~
One Sunday morning when my son was about 5, we were attending a church in our community. It was common for the preacher to invite the children to the front of the church and have a small lesson before beginning the sermon. He would bring in an item they could find around the house and relate it to a teaching from the Bible. This particular morning, the visual aid for his lesson was a smoke detector. He asked the children if anyone knew what it meant when an alarm sounded from the smoke detector. My child immediately raised his hand and said, "It means Daddy’s cooking dinner."
~~~
“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart.
Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.”
Carl Jung
~~~
Stay well, do good work, and have fun.
Ray Mitchell
Indianapolis, Indiana
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The editor is somewhat senile.
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