“I prefer the word ‘homemaker’ because ‘housewife’ always implies there may be a wife somewhere else.” – Bella Abzug

“Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

29 April

“Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing.” - Helen Keller

“Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.” - Abigail Adams

"Me Too, 365," by Arnold Kunst

28 April

“As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.” - Maya Angelou

“It is important to act as if bearing witness matters.” – Anonymous

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

29 April

You and I are bearing witness, right now, to something.  As you already know, it isn’t necessarily the words you and I trot out; no, it’s the person we are that bears witness to that something. Those you and I are close to are absorbing that something and emulating us.

Are you proud of that witnessing? Only you can answer that.

But you cannot escape it.

“We are built for tranquility – to accept it graciously, to confer it generously.” – Arnold Kunst

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

28 April

“A peaceful man does more good than a learned one.” - Pope John XXIII

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are all in harmony.” - Anonymous

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

April 29

At a spontaneous, celebratory White House serenade on the day Lee surrendered - and the Civil War was all but over - Lincoln said, “I have always thought ‘Dixie’ one of the best tunes I have ever heard. Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it but I insisted that we fairly captured it. I presented it to the Attorney General and he gave it as his legal opinion that it is our lawful prize. I now request the band to favor me with its performance.”

“I freely acknowledge myself the servant of the people according to the bond of service - the United States Constitution - and that as such I am responsible to them.” - Abraham Lincoln

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

April 28

“I could not at any age be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never for whatever reason turn one’s back on life.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

“You're never too old to grow younger.” - Mae West

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

April 27

“As our case is new so we must think anew and act anew.” - Abraham Lincoln

“The establishment is made up of little men, very frightened.” – Bella Abzug

27 April

“Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

“The Constitution did not mention women when it was first written, and it still doesn’t.” – Gloria Steinem

“When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

 “Me Too 365,” by Arnold Kunst

26 April

“The drums of Africa still beat in my heart. They will not let me rest while there is a single Negro boy or girl without a chance to prove his worth.” - Mary Jane McLeod Bethune

“I have lived in this world just long enough to look carefully the second time into things I was most certain of the first time.” - Josh Billings

25 April

“Me Too 365,” by Arnold Kunst

“You may think she wanted a Mariachi band in the garden when all she really wanted was a back rub. When all else fails, try asking!” - Arnold Kunst

“The root of suffering is attachment.” – The Buddha

27 April

For the loser “detachment” means “I don’t give a damn.”

For the winner “detachment” means “I don’t need to control the outcome.”

“Fear is, always, sugar in your gas tank.” – Arnold Kunst

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

26 April

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

"Surprise is the enemy of prudence." [Anonymous]

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

25 April

Plan your life, especially the big things. Otherwise, for example, your children will arrive as a result of mindless propagation, God help them.

“Make yourself comfortable with ambiguity.” - Anonymous

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

April 26

“I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Humor is the instinct for taking pain playfully.” - Max Eastman

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

April 25

Draining the President’s attention and energy was a virtually endless stream of office seekers. “Too many pegs and not enough holes to put them in,” he observed wryly. When Lincoln got back to Washington from the Gettysburg cemetery dedication he contracted a mild form of smallpox. Where were the office seekers, he quipped? Now he had something he could give everybody!

“The most desired gift of love is not diamonds, or roses, or chocolate. It’s focused attention.” - Anonymous

From “Me Too 365,” by Arnold Kunst

24 April

How to Handle a Woman: One Right Way.

Suppose they’re talking about you at work behind your back and you’re really angry, and that night when you sit down to dinner at 6:00 PM you ask your wife how her day went. And your wife says, “They’re talking about me at work behind my back and I’m really angry.” And your very first thought is, “hey, that’s what I wanted to unload onto you about!” And instead of saying any of that you exercise a little self-discipline and say, simply, “tell me about it.” And she does, in a big way. Like, for the next two hours she does 90% of the talking and you’re the poster child for empathy; all you do is ask clarifying questions or make summarizing statements. Somewhere along the line you learned [maybe by watching her?] the one-mouth-two-ears thing, and they need to be used in those proportions. In short, you don’t judge, you don’t fix anything. At this particular point she’s not looking for a string of answers but a shoulder to lean on. The last thing she needs is for you to say, “Why did you do that?! Or, “This is what you need to say to him tomorrow.” Never mind, “That was really stupid.”  It’d be far more respectful for you to say, “What do you think would happen if you had said _____ to her instead?” and then go back to listening big time. Or “So you said this and she said that and you said this other; do I have that right?” Or, “That was the very best thing you could have said/done!” Or, “I’m really proud that you _____!”  Assuming you handle those two hours right, assuming you’ve learnt how to listen-listen-listen, it’s possible you will have provided her with a service no man has ever given her in her entire life - not her father, or her brother, or her teacher[s], or her priest, or any of her boy friend[s]. It’s quite possible that this two-hour experience is a great water-shed moment in this relationship. You listen effectively to her from 6 to 8 on the night you want to unload on her and you could end up with a friend for life. When all the dust is settled, that friend-for-life thing could be far more important than your eventually answering her question later: “By the way, how was your day?”

“Go out on a limb; that’s where the fruit is.” – Will Rogers

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

24 April

Leaders utter what others mutter.

“The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.” - Maureen Dowd

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

April 24

“I don't believe in a law to prevent a man from getting rich; it would do more harm than good. So while we do not propose any war upon capital we do wish to allow the humblest man an equal chance to get rich with everybody else.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself.” – Coco Chanel

From “Me Too 365,” by Arnold Kunst

23 April

“Success is always a journey; failure is always acquiescence to some fixation.” – Arnold Kunst

“Only the educated are free.” - Epictetus

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

23 April

Today is a most important day. I've got things that need doing – praying, relaxing, playing, prioritizing, executing, burying, dreaming, strategizing, harnessing otherwise errant power - that are earmarked for THIS day and no other. Doing those things yesterday would be as foolish as taking the cookies out of the oven early [and drinking them] because I'm hungry; doing them tomorrow is looking for the immediately vital in what has already turned putrid/gone to seed. Viewed from this perspective, "tomorrow" is nothing but a jumped-up promissory note.

“How many legs does a dog have if you count the tail a leg? Four. Counting a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.” - Abraham Lincoln

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

April 23

“Squeeze an orange and what comes out is orange juice – no matter what does the squeezing the thing that comes out is what was inside already. If you get angry because someone says or does something, what comes out is, like the orange juice, what was inside already. Give your attention to the content; it is far more important than the source of the squeeze.” - Arnold Kunst

“Lift up those around you; chances are your success got a crucial boost when someone gave you a helping hand, right?” – Arnold Kunst

“Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

22 April

“Would you believe it? They get divorced and the two of them, now, go their separate ways as enemies, not as friends. Hey, they were friends once, so if divorce has to happen they should part, now, as friends, blessing one another as their two ships, now, part in the night.” - Arnold Kunst

“To deal with anger you actually need to stop and deal with it.” - Anonymous

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

22 April

In an argument? Remember this: “when you do XYZ, I feel like this” is a statement of fact, and cannot be attacked. But “you do XYZ to make me feel like this” is a verbal slap in the face – and it could end you up in a locked facility by 7:30 tonight.

“Insist absolutely on enjoying life. Don't take no for an answer!” - Anonymous

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

April 22

“I can make more generals but horses cost money.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Keep it simple, stupid.” – Anonymous

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

21 April

“We’re meant to drive ourselves to an ever-deepening, ever-widening sense of vision regarding the spiritual vibrancy of the community in which we live, to sieze hold of the vital if challenging and to jettison the anemic if familiar, to uncover new ways to touch a world crying out, as surely it does, for meaning and direction.” – Arnold Kunst

“Don’t abdicate to a phantom.” – Arnold Kunst

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

21 April

A universal experience: you suffer from low self confidence because there’s an ogre inside that says, more often than you might care to admit, "you wet your pants in kindergarten, and don’t you EVER forget it!" Countering that ogre clearly is a multi-faceted process probably lasting a lifetime, but surely for you as for me that process includes the help of a mentor, someone close to you who NOTICED, someone who said/did the exact right thing to get you to take those first few halting, stammering, fear-filled steps toward something like a goal, and before you knew it you extended beyond your comfort zone[s] and did what, once, you were convinced was impossible. Maybe the only thing that mentor did to stoke the fire of your self esteem was simply to make you feel welcome. Maybe all [s]he did was say, “How are you?” and meant it. But whatever [s]he did, your self-confidence shot up exponentially. With that subtle help you went from "I could never do that" to "If he can do that so can I" and finally to "if I did that then I can do this now." And almost without your noticing it, you stopped being such a welter of shyness and defeatism anymore – you stopped pandering to ogres!

[By the way, remember to pay it forward. Now it’s your job to NOTICE, to be the mentor to someone who dutifully, unconsciously, 24/7, just like you, ever panders to ogres.]

“Be ye wise as serpents and guileless as doves.” - Jesus Christ

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

April 21

When Lincoln received the Republican nomination for president in 1860 he “seemed to have come from nowhere – a backwoods lawyer who had served one undistinguished term in the House of Representatives and had lost two consecutive contests for the U. S. Senate. Contemporaries and historians alike have attributed his surprising nomination to chance – the fact that he came from the battleground state of Illinois and stood in the center of his party. The comparative perspective suggests a different interpretation. When viewed against the failed efforts of his rivals, it is clear that Lincoln won the nomination because he was shrewdest and canniest of them all. More accustomed to relying upon himself to shape events, he took the greatest control of the process leading up to the nomination, displaying a fierce ambition, an exceptional political acumen, and a wide range of emotional strengths, forged in the crucible of personal hardship, that took his unsuspecting rivals by surprise.” - Doris Kearns Goodwin

“Love begins by taking care of the closest ones – the ones at home.” – Mother Teresa

From “Me Too 365,” by Arnold Kunst

20 April

"I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them. I was surrounded by extraordinary women in my life who taught me about quiet strength and dignity." _ Michelle Obama

“Nature, time and patience are the three great physicians.” - Anonymous

“Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

19 April

“When she’s got a problem, you need to think of asking, ‘What can I do to help?’ [And if you’re not prepared to help when she’s got a problem, why did you let her into your life in the first place? Who’re you kidding?]” - Arnold Kunst

“The function of freedom is to free someone else.” – Toni Morrison

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

18 April

“Loving isn’t for wimps. [Neither is storming the battlements of Heaven, which is pretty much the same thing.]” – Arnold Kunst

“A leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.” - Anonymous

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

20 April

A loser demands it; a winner models it.

How productive is your aggression?

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

19 April

For the loser “aggression” means tearing the guts out of a person.

For the winner “aggression” means tearing the guts out of a problem.

“I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be the inferior sex.” – Katherine Hepburn

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

18 April

Demons like Dracula and Frankenstein may be terrifying but they‘re not omnipotent. Think about it: they require thunder and lightening and midnight. Clearly, they can’t stand the cold light of day. That should alert us against freely investing them with power when they’re utterly dependent like that.

"Focus on the big picture. In 20 years you’ll forget all about this oh-so-upsetting thing, so don't blow it out of proportion in the meantime." - Arnold Kunst

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

April 20

"Much is being said about peace, and no man desires peace more ardently than I. Still I am yet unprepared to give up the Union for a peace which so achieved could not be of much duration." - Abraham Lincoln

“God's part is to move the mountain - my part is to bring the shovel.” - Anonymous

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

April 19

Whatever the negative effects domestically, the Emancipation Proclamation was an unparalleled success abroad. Henry Adams from the office of the US Ambassador in London couldn’t have put it more strongly: “The Emancipation Proclamation has done more for us here than all our former victories and all our diplomacy. It is creating an almost convulsive reaction in our favor all over this country.”

“Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.” - Abraham Lincoln

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

April 18

“Like a determined ship's captain in a typhoon, a leader may trim his sails, alter his route, adjust his arrival time - but he doesn’t let a little commotion in the elements get in his way.” - Arnold Kunst

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Me Too 365,” by Arnold Kunst

17 April

“Watch out that you don’t take for granted the work around the house that she does as a matter of course. If you mindlessly stroll past it like, say, you mindlessly stroll past the wall covering around the front door, you could be in big trouble.” - Arnold Kunst

Odysseus went out “onto the great sea, lost all his goods and his friends, came to the boundaries of death & returned still himself.” – Gillian Bradshaw

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

17 April

Periodically I must “come apart for a little while,” as it says in the Bible. It’s all about feeding the soul, and that’s what happens when I honor the call to confront yet again the riddle of an ever-cleansing sea cleansing an ever-cleansed shore, to answer yet again the beckoning whisper of the wind, to lose myself in the gossamer spread of stars splashed with prodigal abandon across the cobalt-blue of a midnight sky. I am called to delve because clearly deep is calling unto deep. To delve with courage and persistence and innocence and a sense of humor, with faith that when I dive off the edge I will be caught and sustained utterly in love. For it is only then that I will ever taste the height and depth and majesty of mystical communion such as I was made for.

And when I do it right I’ll show Odysseus himself the meaning of journey.

“Life is a stickler for form. If you don't take all the courses and pass all the exams you're just not going to graduate.” - Arnold Kunst

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

April 17

“If a man is honest in his mind you are pretty safe in trusting him.” - Abraham Lincoln

“We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.” - Lee Iacocca

“Me Too 365,” by Arnold Kunst

16 April

“If she says she can’t find the floor in the room you live in, you could complain that she’s nothing but a neat-freak. On the other hand if it’s kinda true, maybe it’s time, literally, to clean up your act.” – Arnold Kunst

“I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was the greatest.” – Muhammad Ali

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

16 April

“I know how you feel. And I’m bigger than that.” - God

“Dwell as near as possible to the channel in which your life flows.” - Henry David Thoreau

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

April 16

“Die when I may I want it said by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Failure is impossible.” – Susan B. Anthony

“Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

15 April

“Never give in – never, never, never. In nothing great of small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.” – Winston Churchill

Are you living on the edge?

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

15 April

“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.”

-Soren Kierkegaard

“Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.” - Socrates

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

April 15

“I cannot bring myself to believe that any human being lives who would do me harm.” - Abraham Lincoln

“No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away.” - Anonymous

From “Me Too 365,” by Arnold Kunst

14 April

“There are no negatives, only positives and potentials hidden and begging for release. That's where we come in - after all, what else does "a little less than the angels" mean if not puzzling out and releasing possibilities buried within apparent negations, disguised in earth-tones, hidden in plain sight?” – Arnold Kunst

“Let me at 'em!” - Anonymous

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

14 April

20, 30, 50 years from now the bloom of youth will have more than faded. There will be parts of my anatomy which, however firm now, will be sagging then. When I lift my arm off the table the part in the middle will leave last. My face may look like a prune, my thighs like congealed cottage cheese. Despite all that, I intend to emulate the playwright Samuel Beckett who said he wouldn't shed the ailments of old age for the vigor of youth even if he could - "not with the fire in me now!"

“Our country owed all her troubles to Lincoln, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment.” - John Wilkes Booth

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

April 14

On April 14, 1865 - Good Friday, as it happened - John Wilkes Booth entered the Presidential box at Ford’s Theater and from a distance of about four feet shot Abraham Lincoln once behind the left ear, the projectile lodging behind his right eye. The President died the next morning.

“Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism.” – Oprah Winfrey

From “Me Too 365,” by Arnold Kunst

13 April

“Someone asked me why women don’t gamble as much as men do, and I gave the commonsensical reply that we don’t have as much money. That was a true and incomplete answer. In fact, women’s total instinct for gambling is satisfied by marriage.” - Gloria Steinem

“Don’t feed your fantasy life with WWF Smack-Down re-runs.” - Arnold Kunst

“Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

12 April

“A strong man can handle a strong woman. A weak man will say she has an attitude.” - Anonymous