Skill is successfully walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls. Intelligence is not trying.
--Unknown
Good morning Ms.Olga, there is always the blissful Tao alternative, a benevolent dictator we can ignore.
Today's Daoism Depot meditation:
23
Abstaining from speech marks him who is obeying the spontaneity
of his nature. A violent wind does not last for a whole morning; a
sudden rain does not last for the whole day. To whom is it that these
(two) things are owing? To Heaven and Earth. If Heaven and Earth
cannot make such (spasmodic) actings last long, how much less can man!
Therefore when one is making the Tao his business, those who are
also pursuing it, agree with him in it, and those who are making the
manifestation of its course their object agree with him in that; while
even those who are failing in both these things agree with him where
they fail.
Hence, those with whom he agrees as to the Tao have the happiness
of attaining to it; those with whom he agrees as to its manifestation
have the happiness of attaining to it; and those with whom he agrees
in their failure have also the happiness of attaining (to the Tao).
(But) when there is not faith sufficient (on his part), a want of
faith (in him) ensues (on the part of the others).
Which is a long way of saying it doesn't matter, it will happen as it will.
-- Hi, Panzade. Good one. I'm glad I'm intelligent enough to have a fear factor.
"It has been the scheme of the Christian Church, and of all the other invented systems of religion, to hold man in ignorance of the Creator, as it is of Governments to hold man in ignorance of his rights. The systems of the one are as false as those of the other, and are calculated for mutual support."
Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
"Violence and smut are of course everywhere on the airwaves. You cannot turn on your television without seeing them, although sometimes you have to hunt around."
Dave Barry (1947- )
"If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
Anatole France (1844-1924)
Smiling at Anatole France and Dave Barry. Dave I know, sort of, but I don't know Anatole France. Back later - I have heard of him more than once. Listening..
Money corrupts the poor but ennobles the rich.
This is a long one, but I couldn't resist.
Thanksgiving Day, a function which originated in New England two or three centuries ago when those people recognized that they really had something to be thankful for--annually, not oftener--if they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, during the previous twelve months instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians. Thanksgiving Day became a habit, for the reason that in the course of time, as the years drifted on, it was perceived that the exterminating had ceased to be mutual and was all on the white man's side, consequently on the Lord's side; hence it was proper to thank the Lord for it and extend the usual annual compliments.
That was Mark Twain--irrepressible... and cynical in his later days.
Thanks Dys & Diane... keep 'em coming. Here is today's:
"It is with nations as with individuals, those who know the least of others think the highest of themselves; for the whole family of pride and ignorance are incestuous, and mutually beget each other."
Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832)
Piff, that quote is powerful and profound (not in the trite sense of the word). Those who think highest of themselves also don't feel any need to get to know the others.
Mine today is:
The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment
to the next.
-- Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966
Having two brothers with mental retardation has taught me much about courage. My brothers have been my inspiration.
I like it, Diane. Courage is never out of style.
Mr.P is away from his desk for a few days.
The universe if bigger than you are, get over it.
A friend sent me this... thought some of you might be suffering quote withdrawal.
Tim Allen had this to say about Martha Stewart:
"Boy, I feel safer now that she's behind bars. O.J. & Kobe are walking around; Osama BinLaden, too, but they take the one woman in America willing to cook and clean and work in the yard and haul her ass to jail."
I'm glad to report: Mr.Piffka has returned, safe & sound, from Atlanta.
"Belief is when someone else does the thinking."
Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983)
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure."
Helen Keller (1880-1968)
I wasn't up to snuff yesterday... I'll have to go find yesterday's quote; meanwhile:
"Any country that has sexual censorship will eventually have political censorship."
Kenneth Tynan (1927-1980)
(Seems this could apply to the argument going on in another part of a2k. Funny, Mr.P never comes here, it must be a bit of synchronicity, or for those of you who don't like that word -- a strange co-ink-e-dinky, that's what my sis & I call it.)
Funny, that's what my best friend and I call it...and we thought we'd made it up.
