Friday, July 25, 2014

Knowledge Over Ignorance - A James Madison Quote

"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."

-James Madison

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Father Forgets

Father Forgets
W. Livingston Larned

Listen, son: I am saying this as you lies asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside.

There are the things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor.

At breakfast I found fault, too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on your bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a hand and called, “Goodbye, Daddy!” and I frowned, and said in reply, “Hold your shoulders back!”

Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. As I came up the road I spied you, down on your knees, playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your boyfriends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive-and if you had to buy them you would be more careful! Imagine that, son, from a father!

Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in timidly, with a sort of hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. “What is it you want?” I snapped.

You said nothing, but ran across in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightened with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs.

Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding-this was my reward to you for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much of youth. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years.

And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your character. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me good night. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bedside in the darkness, and I have knelt there, ashamed!

It is feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours. But tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: “He is nothing but a boy-a little boy!”

I am afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother’s arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, too much.

-Page 15-17 of "How to Win Friends & Influence People" book by Dale Carnegie

*This post can also be found on my Personal Blog (Student of LIFE).

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Jim Carrey Graduation Speech

Jim Carrey is a great actor/comedian and has recently been honoured in Fine Arts after he gave a speech to a class of 2014 university graduates. The speech was both inspirational and humoristic which made Jim Carrey shine. See it below:



*This post can also be found on my Personal Blog (Student of LIFE)

Monday, July 14, 2014

Love's True Opposite

“The opposite of love isn't hate; it's indifference.” -Unknown

When there's hate, forgiveness can potentially repair the hurt and have love comeback. When there's indifference, forgiveness won't change anything.

Hating someone is still thinking about them while indifference is to have completely moved on and are now non-caring of their persons.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

The Man Who Wins Is the One Who Thinks He Can - Poem by Walter D. Wintle

If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you'd like to win, but think you can't
It's almost a cinch you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you've lost,
For out in the world we find
Success being with a fellow's will;
It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you're outclassed, you are:
You've got to think high to rise.
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the one who thinks he can.

-Poem by Walter D. Wintle found on P. 55 of "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill (Revised & Updated for the 21st century edition)

This poem is a good reminder that success in anything begins with the belief that we can. Belief brings confidence which is necessary for any endeavor.

Monday, July 7, 2014

The Human Experience

“You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.” -Teilhard de Chardin

When we think in terms of spirit, there's no racism or gender superiority/differences. When we think in terms of human beings, we start to see the physical differences between people and that is where racism, sexism, bullying, stereotypes (etc...) comes from.

Let's try to see things for what they are rather than what they appear to be. We are spirits trapped in a human body having a human experience. On that basis, we should be able to find common grounds and get along.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Better Than Our Limitations

Humans are the only known entities (so far?) that are able to design machines to compensate for their own limitations. We can go faster with cars, fly with planes, memorize information with computers, go under water with submarines... if we can't physically do it (or it's to difficult for us to do so), we can do it with the help of our inventions.

There will be a day when we'll be sickness free and dying will be nothing more but a choice. There's nothing impossible for the human mind.