Why do people make a face when I mention I had a ketchup sandwich for breakfast? It’s a healthy meal — I use whole wheat bread.
Why do people look puzzled when I tell them my passions are photography, writing, and fox hunting?
A quote spoken by Sherlock Holmes on the TV show Elementary:
“Marriage is an unnatural arrangement forcing its participants into an unhealthy monogamy — an accretion of petty fights and resentful compromises which, like Chinese water torture, slowly transforms both parties into howling neurotic versions of their former selves.”
The quote resonates with me because it’s what I’ve most often observed. I decided long ago to never stick a toe into that murky water, lest a lurking shark bites off my foot.
There is an afterlife. When you die, you will meet an angel and the angel will ask you, “What have you done with your life to be worthy?”
I was reading an article in The New York Times. The article was written by Meghan Austin, and this is the last paragraph:
Even so, I didn’t regret any of it. Love often doesn’t arrive at the right time or in the right person. It makes us do ridiculous and stupid things. But without it, life is just a series of unremarkable events, one after the other.
I like that last sentence, even though it’s not true. With or without love, life holds remarkable events.
The only job I was fired from was drugstore delivery driver. I was 16. To this day I remember the delivery car. It was a Renault Dauphine. I can’t describe how bad this car was. A Time magazine article says of the Dauphine:
“It was, in fact, a rickety, paper-thin scandal of a car that, if you stood beside it, you could actually hear rusting. Its most salient feature was its slowness, a rate of acceleration you could measure with a calendar. It took the drivers at Road and Track 32 seconds to reach 60 mph, which would put the Dauphine at a severe disadvantage in any drag race involving farm equipment.”
This car had a badly worn clutch. It slipped so badly you could let out the clutch without pressing the gas pedal and still not stall the engine. One night I was making a delivery when the clutch finally expired. I was “driving while 16” so of course I was at fault. I was fired. Sacked. Dismissed. Terminated. Oh well. As a wise man said, “Shit happens.”
No doubt, you’ve heard and read many times that you should forgive those who have wronged you. Why?
Negative emotions have negative effects on the body and soul. Feelings of anger and bitterness don’t hurt the target of those feelings, they hurt the person holding those feelings. To be a whole person, a healed person, one must let go of negative feelings. Cast them out.
A good idea can withstand imperfections on the part of those implementing it. A bad idea is impervious to the best execution.
Americans used to tackle big projects straightforwardly, unhesitatingly, as though we all knew and agreed there was no challenge big enough to defeat us. The P-51 Mustang, arguably the best fighter plane of World War 2, was designed and a prototype rolled out in 102 days. The Empire State Building, the world’s tallest building for 40 years, was built in less than 16 months. Hoover Dam, the largest dam ever built at the time, was constructed in 5 years — a project that required diverting the Colorado River around the construction site. America put its first artificial satellite, the 18 pound Explorer I, into earth orbit in 1958. Only 11 years later, American astronauts walked on the moon. We used to get big stuff done. What changed?
“Before you act, listen.
Before you react, think.
Before you spend, earn.
Before you criticize, wait.
Before you pray, forgive.
Before you quit, try.”
— William Arthur Ward
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