Dreams

At the end of the day, I have to please myself.

~ Jeff Lynne

- - - - -

If Lily ever starts a band, I hope she names it The Traveling Lilburys. And I hope I get to manage her wealth. And I hope they make a "Behind the Music" episode about her. I imagine it will be mostly blurry footage of her running around and then flopping down to get belly rubs.

Lost

Some beautiful paths can't be discovered without getting lost.

~ Erol Ozan

- - - - -

People talk about losing themselves sometimes. I think those people are wack jobs.

 

Trees

A short story is what you see when you look out of the window.

~ Mavis Gallant

- - - - -

I think there have to be trees that look at their own reflections. Occasionally, one of them probably says to the others "Cedar tree?" But no one laughs. Is it because trees don't think that is funny? No. It's because trees don't have diaphragms.

Children

If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.

~ Carl Jung

- - - - -

I think if there is something to be changed in a very small child - something about them we think stinks or that makes us want to tell the child that they stink - we should first examine it's diaper.

Reflection

Your words reveal your personality, for what you criticize in others is often a reflection of your own flaws and insecurities.

~ Shabira Banu

- - - - -

Boy is this ever true! When people say to me, "I hate how mean you are and the mean things you say to me all the time," I know they are struggling with themselves and their own flaws and insecurities. I pause and then tell them, "Be nicer to yourself, jackass!"

Tree

No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless it's roots reach down to hell.

~ Carl Gustav Jung

- - - - -

Really, Carl? Really?? Who said that? I bet not an arborist.

 

Community

What is a community? It is the sum total of our choices.

~ Fredrik Backman

- - - - -

We are not who we say we are. We are who we do we are.

(pause)

What are not who we say. We are who we do.

(pause)

We are not how we speak of ourselves. We are how we do for ourselves.

(pause)

You know what I mean. 

 

Doubt

Understand: people will constantly attack you in life. One of their main weapons will be to instill in you doubts about yourself - your worth, your abilities, your potential. They will often disguise this as their objective opinion, but invariably it has a political purpose - they want to keep you down.

~ Robert Greene

- - - - -

I wish I had a voice in my head that argued with the voice in my head that is already there. I'd cheer for that other voice because the current voice isn't very nice.

Of course after a while I'd just wish they would stop arguing. Mainly, I'd like the mean voice to agree with the voice that says how awesome I am. 

Because... have you MET me? That second voice is definitely right.

 

56

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

~ Socrates

- - - - -

I read that the number 56 is a number of change and transformation. This is especially true if you are 55 and about to turn 56. Your age is going to change. And you are going to be transformed into a 56-year-old.

(pause)

When you think about it, pretty much all numbers are symbols of change and transformation. At least around birthday time. 

Democracy

This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on.

~ Thurgood Marshall

- - - - -

Maybe democracy is kind of like a group project. If you don't do your part it either won't get done or someone else will do it, but it won't be the way you wanted it done. You still have to share the grade and you have to remember that there are some people who might not be worried about getting a passing grade.

Swing

The end of childhood is when things cease to astonish us. When the world seems familiar, when one has gotten used to existence, one has become an adult.

~ Eugene Ionesco

- - - - -

I think the reason kids like swings so much is because it makes you feel out of control a little bit. You get that funny feeling in your stomach. And then, sometimes, the branch the swing is on breaks and you get a different feeling in your tailbone. At least that happened at my Uncle Paul and Aunt Miriam's house one time. 

 

Families

I come from a family where the only emotion respectable to show is irritation. In some, this tendency produces hives, in others literature, in me both.

~ Flannery O'Connor

- - - - -

Families can get on your nerves. Deal with it.

If it's way worse than just getting on your nerves, you don't have to deal with it.

You can famileave if you need to.

Ultimately I hope your next of kin are next of kind.

Hot

Then came July, like three o'clock in the afternoon, hot and listless and miserable.

~ Allie Ray

- - - - -

I heard a news story over the summer about the earth. The reporter said, "The earth has had its hottest day ever reported by humans."

Um. Who else is reporting how hot our days are?

Travel

If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you're needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.

~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

- - - - -

I really like seeing cars with a lot of stickers on them. You can see where people have been and learn a little bit about their taste in art based on which specific stickers they have chosen.

I don't like it when people put the stickers on their rear windows then. In those cases you can learn a little bit about their reckless driving habits.

Still, learning is fun.

Shoes

Between saying and doing, many a pair of shoes is worn out.

~ Iris Murdoch

- - - - -

You break in shoes and then you wear them out. Unless they're slippers, in which case you probably just wear them in. Or if they are prison shoes you might break them out.

Shoes, you are such weird and magical and strange things!

Bags

Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.

~ Jack Kerouac.

- - - - -

When traveling, one ought to always take a bag and try to never take baggage. 
 

Siblings

Siblings are the link to our past and the bridge to our future.

~ Jane Mersky Leder

- - - - -

When there are two siblings, one is always a bit more focused and attentive. The other one is either the younger sibling, a poltergeist, or both.

Mousetrap

If you build a better mousetrap, you will catch better mice.

~ George Gobel

- - - - -

The game Mousetrap is not as fun as it looks like it would be. But you forget that and then get it out and spend a couple of hours putting things together and play it for three minutes and remember. Then you spend another hour taking it apart and trying to make the pieces fit back in the box. You put it away and then eight months later see the box and think, "Why don't we ever play Mousetrap?" Then you decide to play it and an hour into re-assembling the game board you remember why you don't play it, but you've already invested all that time putting it together that you are determined to finish. So you do and you play it again for about 15 minutes. Then you take it apart and try to make it all fit back in the box again.

You do this for a few years until you get too old to play Mousetrap. Then a few years later, you see it and buy it for a friend's child or a niece or nephew or a grandchild or a stranger's kid because for some reason you got invited to a kid's birthday party even though you hardly know the kid or its parents. It's part of the progression of life.

Life

There is more to life than increasing its speed.

~ Mahatma Gandhi

- - - - -

The board game Life is a lot like real life. You do stuff and stuff happens. It's not always that fun of a game. But the spinner in the game of Life is the best spinner ever. And that is another way the game is like real life. In both cases just spinning and spinning around is pretty fun for a while. And in both cases, if you do it for too long, other people get annoyed with you. Or if you only pay attention to the spinning and nothing else, you're likely to puke at least a little bit.

Traveling

... there ain't no journey what don't change you some.

~ David Mitchell

- - - - -

Lily is a great traveler. She likes to meet new people and see new things. She enjoys exploring new trails and swimming in new waters. Of course she appreciates old things, trails, and waters, too. And old people. She likes old people, as well. Especially if they are limber enough to still bend over and rub her belly.

Flowers

Two things cannot be in one place. Where you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow.

~ Frances Hodgson Burnett

- - - - -

I know a lot of people who tend to thistles. Instead of looking for joy and happiness in life and in work, they just thistle while they work. 

Slinky

Some people are like Slinkies. They aren't really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to my face when I push them down a flight of stairs.

~ Patricia Briggs.

- - - - -

Sometimes you encounter those kinds of Slinky people alone.

Sometimes they are in pairs.

Sometimes they are just dressed all slinky in their corduroy blazers and their sweater vests and their culottes.
 

Doing

At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done -- then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.

~ Frances Hodgson Burnett

- - - - - 

And then there are people who say you didn't do it the right way, but they aren't doing anything themselves. Just talking. And talking. And talking.

Talking is not doing. Judging is not inspiring or uplifting. So knock that off and start being uplifting, you jerks!

Ideas

The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.

~ Linus Pauling

- - - - -

And the best way to have a LOT of ideas, is to have some kids around. Adults aren't as good at ideas. They can't even have good ideas about what to have for dinner a lot of times. Chipped beef on toast? Seriously? C'mon now.

Wind

She made herself stronger by fighting with the wind.

~ Frances Hodgson Burnett

- - - - -

It's fine to get stronger by fighting the wind. Just be careful. You don't want to get so strong that everyone gathers round to watch and not only do you fight wind, but you actually - in the center of the crowd - you actually break wind.

You don't want that.

Fence

Fear is the highest fence.

~ Dudley Nichols

- - - - -

I wonder how many rules and restrictions and laws are out there just because of one person and another person's unwillingness to have a conversation with that first person. 

Probably a lot. The more chicken we are to talk with one another, the more fences we need, I guess.

 

Stories

Everything is a story - You are a story - I am a story.

~ Frances Hodgson Burnett

- - - - - 

Q: What do you call a building with more than 50,000 stories?

A: A library.

(I just made that up).

 

Fatherhood

Zak: Papa, I have a question.

 Kirk: What's your question.

 Zak: I was thinking I'd eat candy for dinner from now on.

 Krk: Do you think you can really have candy for dinner?

 Zak: Yes. Probably, I can.

 Zak: Just kidding, Papa. Sometimes we need a break from

                                                                             sweet things, right?

 Kirk: That's right, Zak-y.

 Zak: Papa, you're so sweet.

Ideas

Don Draper: I give you money, you give me ideas.

Peggy Olsen: But you never say thank you!

Don Draper: That's what the money's for!!!

~ Mad Men, Season 4, Episode 7

- - - - -

I wish someone would give me money for my ideas. I have some good ones. And, trust me, even Don Draper would thank me for some of them. Like --- wait a minute. If I tell you, you might steal my idea. There is no U in idea. It's MYDEA. 

Baggage

This message board brought to you by Pastor Samsonite.

 

Love

To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.

~ Socrates

- - - - -

I was in a meeting not too long ago. I made a joke and was teasing a colleague. I talked about how that was the way I grew up, and that teasing and sarcastic comments to other people were a way of showing affection. Then I had this epiphany: Being an asshole is my love language.

Trains

Wherever I go, I'm watching. Even on vacation, when I'm in an airport or a railroad station, I look around, snap pictures, and find out how people do things.

~ Richard Scarry

- - - - -

First, I've never taken a railroad trip on vacation. A short ride maybe, but not a full-fledged "I'm using the railroad as my main transportation to get from point A to point B" trip.

Second, I loved Richard Scarry books when I was a kid. As I was writing this, I realized that I didn't know what he looked like. Well, let me tell you, he looks like a guy you'd get if you mixed my dad with Charles Nelson Reilly.

Hellians

The hottest fires in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis.

~ Edmund Burke

- - - - -

I imagine they do a census in hell every so often. You know, they want to know who is there, what kinds of people get condemned. I just have to believe they periodically collect some kind of demongraphic information.

Identity

We understand how dangerous a mask can be. 

We all become what we pretend to be.

~ Patrick Rothfuss

- - - - -

What if there was a superhero with a secret identity. And what if there was a super villain who committed secret identity theft? I bet the hero would have to report things to all of their banks and get a special code to file their taxes.

Also, there are no superheroes who wear clown masks. You can't convince me otherwise. I'll have none of that.

 

Sleeping

Let sleeping dogs lie.

~ Proverb

- - - - -

The point of this saying is to not mess with things that aren't causing problems. I think that's good advice.

Also, on a very tangentially related point, I love the sound of my dog snoring.

Record

My record collection probably tells the story of my life better than I could in words.

~ Colleen Murphy

- - - - -

When the collectors battled to get her records after her death, it was a brutal process. Most assumed it was because she had autographed each of her albums. The truth was, she signed her records so people wouldn't steal them.

Oh the irony.

 

Rainbows

Rainbows are visions, but only illusions.

Rainbows have nothing to hide.

~ Paul Williams & Kenneth Ascher

- - - - -

If rainbows have nothing to hide, why can't they just put that pot of gold on my doorstep? It would make things easier for all of us. 

(pause)

Well, it would make things easier for me. 

Dark

In the midst of darkness, light persists.

~ Mahatma Gandhi

- - - - -

Recently, we were without power for two days. It wasn't so dark during the day, but it was really dark at night.

Balloons

Balloonists have an unsurpassed view of the scenery.

~ H. L. Mencken

- - - - -

I think most people make wishes when they see hot air balloons. Some people wish they were in the hot air balloon. 

(pause)

I think most people who want to fly in a hot air balloon make wishes when they see hot air balloons.

 

Puppa

Dogs are the best. 

~ Almost Everyone

- - - - -

I got home yesterday and we got Lily today. She had to stay in Anderson while we were in Iowa. I hadn't seen her for almost three weeks. She remembered me. I don't know if she missed me, but she still loves me. That's all that matters.

Well, that and she is still house trained. That matters too.

(pause)

What a good puppa.

 

Coffee

It's both easy and difficult to offer someone coffee.

~ Fredrik Backman

- - - - -

I find it difficult to offer people coffee because I don't have any at my house.

Mom

In the end, we'll all become stories.

~ Margaret Atwood

- - - - -

So, today is my mom's funeral. To be honest, though, it's kind of her second funeral. The weekend before she passed, Mom rallied. Jared said that because of all the conversations she got to have with friends and family, she kind of had the good parts of the funeral before the funeral. Mom got to say the things she wanted to and she got to hear what other people had to say about her. The people who loved her didn't wait until she was gone to share stories and laughter with each other. 

We should all learn something from this. We should learn to tell the people we love that we love them and to tell them that now. We should learn to make the time to spend the time in one another's company. We should learn to share and capture stories because we will lean on those in the long-term.

And, of course, as I share those stories with others, I will take significant creative license. That creativity is what drives me.

I'm so glad I passed my creative license driving test.

Love you, Mom.