Friday, July 25, 2008

Let's Lighten It Up a Little


Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.-Groucho Marx


I love all the variants to "old saws" about time.
  • Time flies when you're having fun.
  • Time's fun when you're having flies. (Frog Version)
  • If time flies when you're having fun, it hits the afterburners when you don't think you're having enough. Jef Mallett,
  • So little time and so little to do.-Oscar Levant
  • You can fool too many of the people too much of the time. James Thurber (1894 - 1961), New Yorker, Apr. 29, 1939 "The Owl who was God"
  • A stitch in time would have confused Einstein. Unknown.
  • Now is the time for all good men to come to. Walt Kelly (1913 - 1973), "Pogo"
  • Let not the sands of time get in your lunch. National Lampoon, "Deteriorata"
  • Most of the time I don't have much fun. The rest of the time I don't have any fun at all. Woody Allen (1935 - )
  • Never try to tell everything you know. It may take too short a time. Norman Ford
  • In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these. Paul Harvey
  • Time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug. John Lithgow
  • When Solomon said there was a time and a place for everything he had not encountered the problem of parking his automobile. Bob Edwards
  • The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)
I stopped for a minute to go to the store. When I got in the car and turned on the radio I heard:

Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin
Into the future
Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin
Into the future

For those of you not listening to rock in the 70's these lyrics are from "Fly Like an Eagle" by the Steve Miller Band (1977).

We all get the same 24 hours a day. Try to make yours count. I'll try if you'll try.

Also from the song...

Feed the babies
Who don't have enough to eat
Shoe the children
With no shoes on their feet
House the people
Livin' in the street
Oh, oh, there's a solution

Now THAT is a great way to spend some time. Check out this organization, Talitha Koum Institute that cares for our poorest and most vulnerable citizens in Central Texas.

Peace


Thursday, July 17, 2008

This Takes Me Back


"We must dare to think 'unthinkable' thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world. We must learn to welcome and not to fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think about 'unthinkable things' because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless."
- James W. Fulbright

At one time, Arkansas members of Congress held three of the most important positions in the country. William Fulbright was the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John McClennan was Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Wilbur Mills was Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. All three were Democrats. So, when I saw this quote, I was taken back to my Arkansas roots.

I have considered this quote from two points of view.

First, I have framed this quote in terms of what we must do as a society. That we live in a "complex and rapidly changing world" seems like an understatement. I don't know when Fulbright said this, but he served in the Senate from 1945 to 1975 and died in 1995. If the world he knew was complicated, imagine how he would feel now!

Every day there is evidence that we are thinking "unthinkable things." Intelligent design, stem cell research, cloning, global warming, when life begins and ends are things that in my youth would have been "unthinkable." As a society, most of us didn't even know that these were things we could think about! I don't believe that dissent is any more valued now than it was then. I think that we have reached a place in the development of our society where the only questions we have left are in those "unthinkable" areas. Ethical, moral and religious beliefs are entangled with most of the issues we face. I agree with Senator Fulbright that we can ill afford "mindless action" in our "complex and rapidly changing world."

When I read this quote from a deeply personal perspective I considered my journey in recent years. The "mindless actions" I began in childhood and the years of avoiding "unthinkable things" culminated in 2003 in a deep depression that very nearly led me to suicide in 2004. I received excellent psychiatric care that quite literally saved my life. As the biological component of my depression was stabilized with medication, I was encouraged to begin understanding and changing my destructive behaviors and irrational thought patterns through talking therapy. This journey has been marked by confrontation of the "unthinkable things" that damaged me as a child, skewed my thinking and affected my decision-making as an adult. I am learning "to explore all the options and possibilities that confront" me as I move into "maturity." An additional challenge is to "learn to welcome and not to fear the voices of dissent," particularly the dissenting voices of my adult children!

I got a little more personal than I initially intended. Please hold my revelations with care.

Peace

Monday, July 14, 2008

Beginning Again!


Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees. - unknown


As part of some self-imposed self-discipline, I am going to do my best to post new entries to this blog on Mondays and Thursdays. Wish me luck.

I chose the quote above today because it eloquently describes how I make it through tough days. While I'm "faking it until I make it" my soul is asking for the strength to get through one more day. It asks for strength to to keep my facade intact for one more day. It asks for sleep to come quickly and for thoughts to be still.

When my mind is cluttered, confused and churning thoughts keep my rational mind clouded, I have to hope that deep inside of myself there is a spark (or prayer) that encourages me onward. I have to take it on faith that there is something within me or beyond me that prays for one more day.

Peace

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Thoughts for a New Year


Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

I saw Charlie Wilson's War last night. The end quote on the black screen suggested that we "f---ed the endgame" in Afghanistan. I hope we are learning and not making the same mistake in Iran.

I thought that this quote was exceptional and if anyone would understand this first hand, it would be President Eisenhower.

Peace.