Many paths up the mountain...

Our world is not divided by race, color, gender, or religion.
Our word is divided into wise people and fools.
And fools divide themselves by race, color, or religion.

~ Nelson Mandela

Good advice. Soon, very soon...

Be a traveler, not a tourist.

~ Anthony Bourdain

relatable grafitti...

You were not here last night,
and I could not sleep.
Will you be here tonight?

~ found scratched on an ancient Egyptian wall excavated near Cleopatra's tomb

During times of universal deceit, speaking the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

~ George Orwell

Oooooo, Gandhi was spicy!

Oh, I don’t reject Christ. I love Christ. It’s just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ.

~ Mahatma Gandhi

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.
If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.

~ Albert Einstein

If a cop follows you for 500 miles, you're going to get a ticket.

~ Warren Buffet

A people without history is like wind on the buffalo grass.

~ Sioux Indian saying

The meaning of life is to find your gift.
The purpose of life is to give it away.

~ Pablo Picasso

Consistency is the true foundation of trust.
Either keep your promises or do not make them.

~ Roy T. Bennett

I'm pretending to be happy

We are who we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

~ Kurt Vonnegut

Tru' 'dat!

Ignore anyone who doubts you.

~ Kevin to Nina (in the Heights)

A Livable Level of Decency

Community is everything, and fostering trust amongst each other is everything.
Whatever you guys argue about the specifics, we got to trust that there will be
a livable level of decency.

~ Dave Chapelle

The importance of community

If you want to go fast, go alone.

If you want to go far, go together.

Repetition is the mother of all learning,
the father of action,
and that makes it the architect of accomplishment.

~ Zig Zieglar

Sound advice

Son, I want to leave you with one word of advice:
Grow dead inside. Leave your body!

~ Homer Simpson to Bart

Three day waiting period? But I'm angry NOW!

~ Homer Simpson, trying to buy a gun

I was going to add more, but I'll leave it at that...

I wish I was in love...

Clever NASA Engineers!

"dare mighty things" - encoded in the parachute used in the February 2021 Mars landing of Perserverence.

From a Teddy Roosevelt speech:

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

~ Theodore Roosevelt, 1899

For the love of God, man, TURN THE PAGE!

The World is a book, and those who don't travel read only one page.

~ Augustine of Hippo

Watch out for the deep end!

Be careful!

Love will put rocks in your pocket, and lure you to the deep end of the creek.

~ Phil, on 'Call me Kat'

Pitter patter

When a friend asks a friend for help, you help ‘em

~ Letterkenny

Looking for a sharp person...

As irons sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another

~ Proverbs 27:17

Makes sense

Physical strength is the most important thing in life. This is true whether we want it to be or not.

~ Mark Rippetoe

Zoom Zoom

Being a racing driver means you are racing with other people and if you no longer go for a gap that exists you are no longer a racing driver because we are competing.

~ Ayrton Senna

I see you, baby Jesus! (it is that baby Yoda?)

If you don't see the baby Jesus waving at you - at both the apex AND trackout - you either don't have the line right, you're giving up more speed than you should, or both.

~ Lance Schall

[sigh...]

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

~ Carl Sagan

Keep Looking Up...

If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and stare.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The man knew a thing or two about his subject

On hiking -

"I don't like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains - not hike! Do you know the origin of that word 'saunter?' It's a beautiful word.

Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, 'A la sainte terre,' 'To the Holy Land.'

And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not 'hike' through them."

~ John Muir

A Zen koan for our times...

You can't wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.

January 6, 2020

"Those who can make you believe absurdities
can make you commit atrocities"

~ Voltaire

I know what you are, but what am I?

There is a difference between being alone and being lonely.

~ John Lennon

A man walks down the street

He says, "Why am I soft in the middle, now?
Why am I soft in the middle?
The rest of my life is so hard
I need a photo-opportunity
I want a shot at redemption
Don't want to end up a cartoon
In a cartoon graveyard.

~ “You Can Call Me Al” Paul Simon

Tai Chi in the age of Covid-19

When you practice alone, remember - you are practicing with all the beings in the Universe

~ Kim Kanzelberger

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

~ Nelson Mandela

Be good humans

Do good things

Search for happiness

~ Elijah Orr

You live simply, you train hard, and and live an honest life. Then you are free.

~ Eliud Kipchoge, world record holder in the Marathon

I can't hear you!

The enemy is noise.

The goal is clarity.

~ Jon Stewart

Tai Chi Wisdom

"Stick, Adhere, Listen and Follow"

Fundamental principles of push hands in tai chi that can also be applied to human relationships.

Here at the frontier, the leaves fall like rain.

Although my neighbors are all barbarians, there are still two cups at my table.

~ Wu-men

Zen Wisdom

Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.

If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.

~ Wu-men

Me too!

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!
I try not to cry until you're asleep.

~ Lisa Simpson to Homer

Applications for this abound!

How to have an argument about something that's not proven:

Present your case on an issue without raising your voice or calling people names
Agree to disagree
Agree that if the other person turns out to be right you will congratulate them
Bond as humans

~ Adam Dietch

Some things never change...

Every Disaster Movie begins with a scientist being ignored.

~ Niel deGrasse Tyson

Alas, the existential paradox

Financial freedom simply creates space for something else.
If there is no something else the freedom doesn’t matter.
Your job is to figure out what it is.

~ the Happy Philosopher

Three Equations for a Happy Life

From an article in the Atlantic by Arthur C. Brooks, April 9, 2020

Equation 1:

Subjective Well-being = Genes + Circumstances + Habits

Equation 2:

Habits = Faith + Family + Friends + Work

Equation 3:

Satisfaction = What you have ÷ What you want

Years and years and years...

"You can’t go on and on for years being miserable about a situation and not have it change you.
You get so you can’t stand yourself."

~ Lucille Ball, about her divorce from Desi

My New Year's Resolution

Pee before you leave.

(tip of the hat to Larry David)

On Mitt Romney, voting for the President's removal from office (February 2020)

The tallest blade of grass is the first cut by the scythe.

~ old Russian proverb