“Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy.” - Anonymous

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 31

Lincoln was roundly criticized for an abysmal lack of leadership because he appeared to dither. The fact was he refused to move until he had gathered and evaluated all the relevant facts. His critics, by contrast, always had all the relevant facts; they always knew what to do and how to do it, and never seemed burdened with that pesky need to gather and sift.

'Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.'

- John F. Kennedy

“For the winner the glass is always half full. He empowers, encourages, praises. Like flowers in sunlight, the rest of us bloom just because we’re in his presence.” - Arnold Kunst

From “The Human Condition: A User’s Manual,” by Arnold Kunst

30 January

Live your life as if your son were right next to you, drinking it all in. [And trust me, if he WERE right next to you he would be drinking it all in.]

“You are a majority of one.” - Arnold Kunst

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 30

'And upon this act [The Emancipation Proclamation] sincerely believed to be an act of justice warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.'

- Abraham Lincoln

'Doubt not, oh poet, but persist. Say, “It is in me, and shall out!”’

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.” – Deepak Chopra

From “The Human Condition: A User’s Manual,” by Arnold Kunst

20 December

If there’s no bite to your love you’re nothing but a standard-issue 21st century plastic construct!

“Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity – and I’m not sure about the universe.” – Albert Einstein

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 29

Lincoln once told the story of the sick man in Illinois ‘who was told he probably hadn’t many days longer to live, and he ought to make his peace with any enemies he might have. He said the man he hated worst of all was a fellow named Brown in the next village. So Brown was sent for, and when he came the sick man began to say, in a voice as meek as Moses’s, that he wanted to die at peace with all his fellow creatures, and he hoped he and Brown could now shake hands and bury all their enmity. The scene was becoming altogether too pathetic for Brown who had to get out his handkerchief and wipe the gathering tears from his eyes. After a parting that would have softened the heart of a grindstone, Brown had about reached the room door when the sick man rose up on his elbow and called out to him: “But see here, Brown, if I should happen to get well, mind, the old grudge stands.”’

‘Don't make me come down there!’

- God

“We build Heaven on the edge of the volcano.” - Jonathan Hanaghan

From “The Human Condition: A User’s Manual,” by Arnold Kunst

28 January

Sometimes it takes courage to shed tears that teeter right there, on the brink. The reward is a quantum leap that morphs “looking at” into “SEEING.”

“Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things.” – Thomas Merton

From “The Human Condition: A User’s Manual,” by Arnold Kunst

27 January

When I close my eyes I can feel the blood surging and the muscles tingling. I know all the considerable abilities - from will power through imagination to adrenaline – are bending inexorably toward achievement, are meshing happily together, like the music of the spheres, to get the job done, the miracles worked, the dreams realized.

“Delusional people build castles in the air; Schizophrenics move into them and pay rent!” - Anonymous

From “The Human Condition: A User’s Manual,” by Arnold Kunst

12 June

LIFE IN PRISON, PART THREE

Let’s look at the position of the inmates in my prison classroom a little closer.

Almost by definition he’s young which means he has virtually no perspective. So when he eventually hits the streets after his first conviction he’ll end up getting locked up again - and think it's no big deal. After all, as they say, "everybody's doing it." (He DOESN'T think "only losers are doing it" because his friends are included, and they're no more losers than are your friends and mine, right?) Anyway, he’s back inside, back where he’s come to feel comfortable - life on the streets, frankly, is actually scary since it forces him to provide just about everything for himself (food, shelter, a future, everything) whereas back inside prison he can rely on three hots and a cot.

So the process is launched (without his even realizing it); he gets, say, a two-year sentence, then gets paroled, then inside the space of a baseball season [maybe by 7:30 that night!] either gets a new beef or violates his parole and he’s back for 18 months. Next thing he knows he’s 56 and, looking back, he can’t remember spending a complete baseball season on the streets since he was 12.

In short, he’s going to do a life sentence, drip-drip-drip, on the installment plan.

Talk about delusional! 

“The biggest mistake a small business owner can make is to think like a small business owner.” - Anonymous

From “The Human Condition: A User’s Manual,” by Arnold Kunst

25 January

My son and his wife have just made the following New Year’s resolution: leave their Internet business and before the year’s out move to the Sierra foothills to open up their own snob coffee shop/dessert shop. [Among other things, my daughter-in-law does a killer tiramisu!].

But before they do anything drastic they’ve decided to get their feet wet gradually: he’ll continue with the Internet business and she'll get a job as a barista at a foothills Starbucks for six months. While there she’ll work her way up first to assistant manager, then manager. That way she’ll learn the coffee-shop business from the bottom up, and all on Starbucks' nickel!

How’s that for a New Year’s resolution!

“How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don’t think.” – Adolf Hitler

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 28

'Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure.'

- Congressman Abraham Lincoln

'Crime and punishment grow out of the one stem. Punishment is a fruit that, unsuspected, ripens with the flower of the pleasure that concealed it.'

- Ralph Waldo Emerson