Sounds about right...

The West is dying of suicidal empathy.

~ Gad Saad

So, what are you doing Saturday night?

Rich people plan for three generations.  

Poor people plan for Saturday night.

~ Gloria Steinem

 

My daily meditation these days

Every day we make choices:

    Choices that build strength,

    Choices that bring peace,

    Choices that grow our mind,

    Choices that power our body,

    Choices that connect,

    Choices that disconnect.

Because how we feel tomorrow

starts with what we do today.

~ London Fitness Guy

Me, too!

I’m killing time while I wait for life to shower me with meaning and happiness.

~ Calvin (from Calvin and Hobbes)

Hold me now...

I have a picture 

Pinned to my wall 

An image of you and of me and we're laughing, we're loving it all 

But look at our life now 

All tattered and torn 

We fuss and we fight and delight in the tears that we cry until dawn 

Hold me now

Warm my heart 

Stay with me 

Let lovin' start, 

Let lovin' start 

You say I'm a dreamer 

We're two of a kind 

Both of us searching for some perfect world we know we'll never find 

So, perhaps I should leave here 

Yeah, yeah, and go far away 

But you know that there's nowhere that I'd rather be than with you here today 

Hold me now

Warm my heart 

Stay with me 

Let lovin' start, 

Let lovin' start 

You ask if I love you 

Well, what can I say? 

You know that I do and that this is just one of those games that we play 

So, I'll sing you a new song 

Please don't cry anymore 

I'll even ask your forgiveness, though I don't know just what I'm asking it for 

Hold me now

Warm my heart 

Stay with me 

Let lovin' start, 

Let lovin' start 

~ The Thompson Twins

Untroubled spirit

The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. 

The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.

~ Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Change

You can't go back and change the beginning,

but you can start where you are and change the ending.  

~ C. S. Lewis

Exactly correct

 

and searching and searching...

 

Für immer und ewig

 

This might be the best thing I've ever read

An entire sea of water can't sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship.

Similarly, the negativity of the world can't put you down unless you allow it to get inside you.

~ found on the interwebs

The REAL Art of the Deal!

Lily: Terms - if you can do all that, I will let you touch one boob. 

Barney: Both boobs! 

Lily: Just one. 

Barney: Touch and squeeze. 

Lily: Just touch. 

Barney: Touch and motor boat. 

Lily: Just touch. 

Barney: Honka honka? 

Lily: [Annoyed] Barney... 

Barney: Just touch?

Lily: Just touch. 

Barney: For one hour. 

Lily: For one second! 

Barney: Twenty minutes both boobs. 

Lily: Thirty seconds one boob. 

Barney: Four minutes, both boobs, three squeezes. 

Lily: One minute, both boobs, one squeeze. 

Barney: Deal!

~ from How I Met Your Mother

Three types of conversation

People are only ever having three different conversations 

• Practical - I have a goal, let’s find a solution 
• Emotional - venting or they want validation 
• Social - they just want acknowledgment 

Ask them:  Do you want me to listen, or do you want my advice?

But what about infinite disappointment?

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Some people...

Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75

~ Benjamin Franklin

Important to remember!

Those who are hardest to love need it the most

~ Socrates

What I'd say if I had courage...

 I'm living a life incongruent with my values.

I hate to admit it, my experience says yes

Women love a man under the condition that he has something to provide. 

~ read on the interwebs

God DAMMIT!

The way you treat yourself is the exact way women will treat you. 

~ read on the interwebs

Sounds about right...

This constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore. 

A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. 

And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies. 

With such a people, you can do whatever you want.

~ Hannah Arendt, German historian and philosopher (1906 - 1975)

Critics

An athlete won't judge you for working out. 

A millionaire won't judge you for starting a business. 

A musician won't judge you for playing a song 

It's people going nowhere who are the biggest critics.

Squeak, squeak!

The mouse dies in the mouse trap

because it doesn't understand

why the cheese is free.

I'm not a fan of elevator music,

It's bad on so many levels.

I may have posted this before

Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, 

And all the while, a great wind carries me across the sky.

~ Ojibwe saying

Classic Lyrics

The highway's jammed with broken heroes 

On a last chance power drive 

Everybody's out on the run tonight 

But there's no place left to hide 

Together, Wendy, we can live with the sadness 

I'll love you with all the madness in my soul 

Oh, someday girl, I don't know when 

We're gonna get to that place 

Where we really want to go, and we'll walk in the sun 

But 'til then, tramps like us Baby, we were born to run

~ Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run, verse 3

An oldie, but a goodie

An old, blind Marine accidentally stumbles into an all-girl biker bar, completely unaware of his surroundings. After feeling his way to the bar, he takes a seat and orders a shot of Jack Daniels. 

As he settles in, he suddenly yells out, "Hey, anyone here wanna hear a blonde joke?" 

The room goes dead silent. From beside him, a deep, authoritative voice calmly responds, "Before you go any further, I think you should know a few things." 

The voice continues: 

"First, the bartender is a blonde woman with a baseball bat.

Second, the bouncer is also a blonde woman.

Third, I'm a blonde, 6-foot-tall, 175-pound black belt in karate.

Fourth, the woman sitting next to me is a blonde professional weightlifter.

Finally, the lady on your other side is a blonde professional wrestler."

The room stays silent as the Marine pauses to process what he just heard. 

After a moment, he chuckles softly and says, "You know what? Forget it. I don't feel like explaining the joke five times."

Woah!

Depression is rage turned inward.

~ Dr. Melfi, in The Sopranos

Personal Accountability - focusing on the "Question Behind the Question" - QBQ

What are IQs and QBQs? 

We’ve discovered there are certain questions people ask that are unproductive, maybe even a bit dangerous! 

We call them "Incorrect Questions" or "IQs."

IQs tend to begin with the outwardly focused words “Why,” “When,” and “Who”:

• “Why is this happening to me?” and “Why don’t I ever get a break?” cause us to fall into the trap of Victim/Entitlement Thinking. 
• “When will they handle this?” and “When will I get more support?” lead people to Procrastination. 
• “Who made the mistake?” and “Who dropped the ball?” take a person straight to Blame. 

The best way to avoid costly IQs is to ask The Question Behind the Question—or the “QBQ.” 

Here is our definition of the QBQ: 

QBQ! is a tool enabling people to practice PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY by making better choices in the moment. 

So, looking at the IQs above, how much better it is to choose to ask QBQs such as these: 

• “How can I be my best today?” 
• “What can I do now to make a difference?” 
• “How can I help solve the problem?” 

 Note that all QBQs have a certain structure to them. Each and every QBQ: 

1. Begins with “What” or “How.” 
2. Contains the personal pronoun “I.” 
3. Focuses on action!

~ from the book by John A. Miller, QBQ

Some things are hard to understand

You know what I don't understand, Tony?

What does she have that I don't have?

~ Carmela, to Tony, after learning of yet another of Tony's affairs, the Sopranos

A man who is clearly smitten!

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair. 

Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets. 

Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day 

I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps. 

I hunger for your sleek laugh, 

your hands the color of a savage harvest, 

hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails, 

I want to eat your skin like a whole almond. 

I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body, 

the sovereign nose of your arrogant face, 

I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes, 

and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight, 

hunting for you, for your hot heart, 

Like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.

~ Pablo Neruda

But then what?

You can only push a man only so far.

~  Rosalie Aprile to Carmela, in The Sopranos

I know the feeling

Goodbye, Love.

You will always be my best of times.

~ Greta (spy) to Luke (also a spy and Greta's former lover, played by Arnold Swartzenegger), in FUBAR

Ask me how I know...

I promise you there is something worse out there than being sad, and that's being alone and being sad.

~ Ted Lasso, in Ted Lasso

We've all known a few scorpions

A scorpion wants to cross a river but cannot swim, so it asks a frog to carry it across. 

The frog hesitates, afraid that the scorpion might sting it, but the scorpion promises not to, pointing out that it would drown if it killed the frog in the middle of the river. 

The frog considers this argument sensible and agrees to transport the scorpion. 

Midway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog anyway, dooming them both. 

The dying frog asks the scorpion why it stung despite knowing the consequence, to which the scorpion replies: 

"I am sorry, but I couldn't help myself. It's my character."

One of the saddest songs ever written

Turn down the lights, turn down the bed 

Turn down these voices inside my head 

Lay down with me, tell me no lies 

Just hold me close, don't patronize 

Don't patronize me 

'Cause I can't make you love me if you don't 

You can't make your heart feel somethin' it won't 

Here in the dark, in these final hours 

I will lay down my heart and I'll feel the power 

But you won't, no you won't 

'Cause I can't make you love me, if you don't 

I'll close my eyes, then I won't see 

The love you don't feel when you're holdin' me 

Mornin' will come, and I'll do what's right 

Just give me till then to give up this fight 

And I will give up this fight 

'Cause I can't make you love me if you don't 

You can't make your heart feel somethin' it won't 

Here in the dark, in these final hours 

I will lay down my heart and I'll feel the power 

But you won't, no you won't 

'Cause I can't make you love me, if you don't 

Try, baby 

Ain't no use in you tryin', baby

~ sung by Bonnie Raitt

Caged by frail and fragile bars

The beast in me is caged by frail and fragile bars 

Restless by day and by night rants and rages at the stars 

God help the beast in me.

The beast in me has had to learn to live with pain 

And how to shelter from the rain 

And in the twinkling of an eye, might have to be restrained 

God help the beast in me. 

Sometimes it tries to kid me 

That it's just a teddy bear 

And even somehow manage to vanish in the air 

And that is when I must beware of the beast in me.

 That everybody knows 

They've seen him out dressed in my clothes 

Patently unclear if it's New York or New Year 

God help the beast in me.

~ Sung by Johnny Cash

Spicy

It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves

~ Franz Kafka, Czech novelist and writer

 

The final lines of King Lear

The weight of this sad time we must obey, Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. 

The oldest hath borne most; we that are young Shall never see so much nor live so long.

~ Edgar, King Lear, Shakespeare

A lesson from Captain Picard

 

It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose.

That is not weakness, That is life

~ Picard to Data, Star Trek:  The Next Generation

My favorite song today

Imagine what you want 

Then get out of the way 

Remember energy follows thought 

So be careful what you say 

Be careful what you ask for 

Make sure it's really what you want

Because your mind is made for thinking 

And energy follows thought 

Your mind is in control 

Even when you do not know 

And if you let it idle 

Ain't no telling where it'll go 

Wherever you are sleeping 

And your dreams take you away 

Go on with your dreaming 

And listen to what they say 

And if you hear spirits talking 

Their wisdom can't be bought 

Apply it to your thinking 

And energy follows thought 

Your mind is in control 

Even when you do not know 

And if you let it idle 

Ain't no telling where it'll go 

Imagine what you want 

And get out of the way 

Remember energy follows thought 

So be careful what you say

~ Willie Nelson, Energy Follows Thought,  from A Beautiful Time

If the shoe fits...

I don't recognize myself anymore.

Not in my laughter, not in my silence.

Somewhere between surviving and

pretending, I became a stranger

to my own soul.

~ found on the interwebs

True

The more often a man feels

without acting, the less he

will be able ever to act, and

and in the long run, the less he

will be able to feel. 

 C.S. Lewis

Oof!

No silence hurts

like the one

that comes

after the voice

that felt like home

goes silent.

~ David Jones, Love and Space Dust, Volume II

That's a lie!

To offend a strong man, tell him a lie;

To offend a weak man, tell him the truth

~ Marcus Aurelius

Why not both?

Anyone can love the mountains; it takes a soul to love the prairie.

~ Willa Cather

Despair, indeed...

I met a traveller from an antique land, 

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone 

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, 

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, 

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, 

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read 

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, 

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; 

And on the pedestal, these words appear: 

    My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; 

    Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! 

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay 

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare 

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, in Ozymandias

I made a pact with myself

"Do you love Me?" Alice asked.

"No, I don't love you!" replied the White Rabbit. 

Alice frowned and clasped her hands together as she did whenever she felt hurt.

 "See?" replied the White Rabbit. "Now you're going to start asking yourself what makes you so imperfect and what did you do wrong so that I can't love you at least a little. You know, that's why I can't love you. 

You will not always be loved Alice, there will be days when others will be tired and bored with life, will have their heads in the clouds, and will hurt you. Because people are like that, they somehow always end up hurting each other's feelings, whether through carelessness, misunderstanding, or conflicts with themselves. 

If you don't love yourself, at least a little, if you don't create an armor of self-love and happiness around your heart, the feeble annoyances caused by others will become lethal and will destroy you. 

The first time I saw you I made a pact with myself: 'I will avoid loving you until you learn to love yourself.' "

 ~ Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland

I concur

A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.

~ Muhammad Ali

Say what now?

People tell you who they are, 

but we ignore it.

Because we want them to be who we want them to be.

~ Don Draper, on Mad Men

If only more people listened...

Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right.

~ Ricky Gervais (on The View, of all places!)

The faintest ink is better than the best memory.

~ Chinese proverb (heard on Mad Men)

Still trying to learn this lesson...

Even a fool, when he holds his peace, is considered wise; when he shuts his lips he is deemed a man of understanding. 

~ Proverbs 17:28

Napoleon's Credo

The world is for the taking.  

Ambition and determination are the means of achieving it.  

Imitate great men of history, and the world can be yours. 

~ Plutarch

I can relate!

 Caroline Lamb...God Damn!

~ Lord Byron

note:  Lord Byron was passionately in love with Caroline Lamb off and on throughout his life.  Caroline was described by Lord Byron as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know."

A poem I'm trying to memorize

 My Heart's Fit to Break

My heart's fit to break, yet no tear fill my eye,

As I gaze on the moon, and the clouds that flit by;

The moon shines so fair, it reminds me of thee,

But the clouds that obscure it are emblems of me. 

They will pass like the dreams of our pleasures and youth,

They will pass like the promise of honor and truth,

And bright thou shalt shine when these shadows are gone,

All radiant, serene, unobscur'd-but alone.

~ Caroline Lamb

If only it was that easy...

In my life, I've learned that you can't make someone love you.

So I've taken the next best course...

accept and surrender

~ Capt. Massey on Doctor Odyssey

Something to think about

Divorce. It’s the biggest destroyer of wealth you’ll face. Marriage is a financial partnership. You’re creating a business with your spouse. 

Choose wisely, align your financial goals, and protect your wealth. 

Otherwise, get ready to start over with half. 

~ Kevin O'Leary ("Mr. Wonderful" on Shark Tank)

Ask yourself...

Ask yourself who you’d want to spend the last day of your life with and then meet with them as often as you can. 

 ~ Warren Buffett