I Am Grateful to Be an Angel

Women are Angels. And when someone breaks our wings, we continue to fly... on broomsticks. We're flexible like that. (Jackie Hines)

Math Quote

"Young man, in mathematics you don't understand things, you just get used to them."

- Von Neumann

Quote

Don't be afraid to contradict yourself. For enlightenment is a moving target.

~ Ralph Marston

Thank goodness for that since I am a walking contradiction!

Still Valid 40 Years Later

"Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product - if we should judge America by that - counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."

- Robert Kennedy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, March 18, 1968

There is a reason the Kennedys were so powerful and I feel it's not because they were all very "pretty" in their time. They were a family full of wisdom. Granted, speeches are normally written by professional speech writers and the politicians often just deliver the words with a few changes here and there, but the team work can create a powerful message that remains valid for forty years.

I was made aware of this quote by the most recent TED video (below). This is David Cameron speaking about behavioral economics. I think he's on the right track talking about how to change people's political behavior by appealing to who they already are, not trying to change or mold them into someone else.

Of course, anything said in a British accent sounds so much more intelligent. Why IS that?

(Well that stinks - their video won't play so I had to change it to a link that opens in a new window.)

Knowing Just Enough To Be Dangerous

"Nothing is so dangerous to the progress of the human mind than to assume that our views of science are ultimate; that there are no mysteries in Nature, that our triumphs are complete, and that there are no new worlds to conquer."

-Humphry Davy

Quote

The Truth of one's soul is silent, important only to oneself. For my Truths are not necessarily your Truths, so silent it will be until in silence our truths will meet and we laugh to find that they are only reflections of one another.

-Nari

Freedom

Freedom comes not from an absence of challenges, but from knowing that you can successfully handle any challenge that arises.

- Ralph Marston

And For The Girls...

Women would be amazed if they knew what men desire about them. Yes, of course, they want to see women naked and supine and melting, but male desire is far more readily stimulated by what the oblique glance discovers: the parted lips, the micron of eyelash which the mascara brush missed, the changing angle and shadow of cleavage, the bra-strap alternately displayed and covered up, the ripe-camembert plumpness at the edge of hips. There is, inside every adult man, a relentless Peeping Tom, a perennial 14-year-old boy, still amazed by the phenomenon of women on display, flagging their sexuality, their availability, with every square inch of visible flesh, clothing, make-up and curve.

...

We desire the personality that we discern in the walk, the clothes, the laugh … We look, and sigh, and wish to do certain things to her, first urgently, then luxuriantly, and keep doing it indefinitely; but we also hunger to have her do certain things to us, unimaginable though it may seem – we want her to want us. We don’t just want her surrender, like a slave captured in battle; we want her approbation, her adoration; we want to enchant her to desire us back. For, no matter how humble we feel before the dizzying fact of female beauty, men are just as narcissistic as women.

- John Walsh from Desire: What Really Turns Us On

This all sounds very flowery and nice, but I think he missed the basics of mens' desires: 4-inch stiletto heels, scraps of cloth that pass as clothing even if the temp is below freezing, a lack of lingerie under your skirt, a "Hall Pass," and to be left alone during The Game!

For The Boys

The amazing thing is this: 90% of a woman’s emotional problems stem from feeling unloved. So don’t stand back and analyze her, like a doctor diagnosing a patient, or like a therapist questioning a client. Give her your love - the same love that is motivating your questioning - immediately and unmistakably. Walk over to her, look deeply into her eyes, hold her and stroke her, tell her how much you love her, smile, hum her favorite song and dance with her, and chances are, her emotional problem will evaporate. She may still have some situation to deal with, and you may be able to help her with that, but the emotional aspect will be converted to love.

It is a very rare occasion when your analysis of her mood relieves her of it. Most often, your analysis and attempts to fix her will just piss her off more. Ask her if she would rather you gave her love or analyzed her when she is upset. It’s so easy to give her love; it’s what both of you really want anyway. But as a man you are more likely to try to fix her. That’s exactly not what she wants, and exactly what will make the situation worse, most of the time.

- David Deida, The Way of the Superior Man

THIS IS SO TRUE.

Things I'm thankful for today:

1. Someone in my life who is amazingly good at the very thing quoted above.
2. The washer and dryer in my garage.
3. Awesome photographers.
4. Green.
5. Happiness.
6. Socks right out of the dryer.

What's For Breakfast

"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"

"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"

"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully.

"It's the same thing," he said.

Quote on Courage

"It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are."
-- e.e. cummings

Thank you Michelle Barr, whom I found through a link on Jill Luigs' blog. :)

Excellent Point

"... the wide dissemination of once sacred and hard-to-obtain knowledge has also given rise to the smug presumption that we know it all; that we are farther along in our spiritual quest than we really are; that we do not need to undergo the difficult and lifelong trial of spiritual transformation. The late Ch'gyam Trungpa said it well:

Our vast collections of knowledge and experience are just part of ego's display, part of the grandiose quality of ego. We display them to the world and, in doing so, reassure ourselves that we exist, safe and secure, as "spiritual" people. But we have simply created a shop, an antique shop."

The entire article I was reading can be found here.

Knowledge and experience are all Ego. Makes sense because what need does the spirit have of such things when it is All There Is to begin with?

Yup yup.

Quote

Thanks to Sera Beak for finding this awesome quote.

"Don’t accept any statement because I made it. Even if it is true a hundred times over, it still is not your truth, it still is not your experience, and it will not belong to you. Bring truth into being, and then it will belong to you. Regard the lives of those who have achieved truth only as proof that the goal can be reached."

Written by Selvarajan Yeshudian about his teacher, Elizabeth Haich in the Foreword to Haich’s book Initiation

No Shame in Being Crazy

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

~ Apple Computers

Quote

“the important thing is not just having the idea; it's writing the book. That's the difficult thing, the thing that takes the time and the energy and the discipline. The initial idea is much less important, actually, than what you do with it.”

- Phillip Pullman

A Breath of Red Air

This was written by one of my favoritest authors, Sera Beak, on her blog the other day. She's a really cool chick and you should check her out at SeraBeak.com.

I don't know what it is about this combination of words she strung together, but it has really stuck in my head as one of the most beautiful things I've read recently. Thank you, Sera!

You, who make angels stutter and mystics moan - congratulations for being here so well.

It's not an easy gig, this thing called life. In fact, it's quite the ass-kicking experience. But oh, how you're living brilliantly anyway. Even when you think you've failed, the Universe stands in awe of you. Even when you forget who you are, blades of grass long to rub up against you. Even when you hide your gifts, the air aches to breathe you.

In.

Thank you for existing so perfectly.