“The power of imagination makes us infinite.” – John Muir

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

30 June

“All honor to the noble women that have devoted earnest lives to the intellectual needs of mankind! – Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“Travel is fatal to prejudice.” – Mark Twain

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

30 June

You and I must take care that we don’t enshrine small-mindedness, that we don’t carefully search out the next pebble on the road of life to trip over. And don’t think you’re any more off this particular hook than I am.

Don’t believe me? Then consider a significant relationship that’s currently gone astray in some way – with your boss, your underlings, your spouse, your kid[s], your parent[s]. Without any trouble at all you [and I, God help me!] can recite chapter and verse to show how the other person is short-sighted, self-centered, deluded, incapable of seeing the situation correctly [i.e. the way I do] etc.

See any of those pebbles now?

“We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.” - John F. Kennedy

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

June 30

“The dream of the Confederacy started out with an expectation of nobility and ended cloaked in revisionist elitism. Both dreams contain fantastic, almost unbelievable, stories. But the story of what really happened is far more intriguing – and useful. If we are to learn from the history of men, we must be frank about their humanity. Those who led the Confederacy were not gods. They were men, sometimes bold and sometimes weak, sometimes hateful and sometimes grand, sometimes selfish, not always sober. Together they formed an imperfect union, and together they destroyed it.” - David Eicher

“There’s a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker.” – Charles Schultz

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

29 June

“Fifty seven million children across the world don’t want an iphone, Xbox or chocolates. They want a book and pen.” – Malala Yousafzai

“Do not learn how to react. Learn how to respond.” – The Buddha

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

29 June

Be careful that you, as a parent, don’t find emotional blackmail too seductive to pass up. In a moment of passion it’s very easy, fairly early on in your career as a parent, to say to your child, “If you ever __________, you’re out of my life forever!” It doesn’t make any difference what you put in that blank space; that choice yields a yawning disaster stretching out beyond the furthest horizon that is as inevitable as it is profound.

“I believe the first test of a truly great man is humility.” - John Ruskin

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

June 29

“May the Almighty grant that the cause of truth, justice, and humanity, shall in no wise suffer at my hands.” - Abraham Lincoln

“I am doing something new: a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. I will make a way for you.” – The Bible

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

28 June

“Buy her a flower when it’s a nothing day. Of course she might surprise you and follow your lead, but even if she doesn’t, buy her the flower anyway. Sincere thoughtfulness is always valuable in its own right because it goes a long, long way toward building a reservoir of goodwill. [And since you’re every bit as screwed up as she is, that reservoir will soon enough be called on.]” – Arnold Kunst

“God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer.” – Mother Teresa

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

28 June

Since listening is a luxury very few of us ever get from those around us, doing it well, and patiently, and maybe even consistently, is worth its weight in gold. Do it right and you could end up with a friend for life.

“The search for someone to blame is always successful.” - Robert Half

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

June 28

Reports of the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 were highly partisan. Republican journalists, for their part, ridiculed Douglas's swagger, his dwarfish height, mammoth head, and duck-like walk, and described how he “foamed at the mouth” and dribbled “the saliva of incipient madness.” On the other side, Democratic journalists taunted Lincoln's gangly arms, clownish legs, and apelike gestures.

“The first step toward greatness is honesty.” - Anonymous

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

27 June

How often does this happen? They get a divorce and go their separate ways as enemies, not as friends. What’s that about? If divorce has to happen, part as friends, blessing one another as two ships that, now, part in the night.

“You can’t reach for anything new if your hands are still full of yesterday’s [cherished] junk.” - Anonymous

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

26 June

The first hint that this may be love is manners. It’s invariably innocent bean-counting, and runs something like this: “I’ll be happy to scratch your back if you’ll be good enough to scratch mine.” Hard on the heels of this phase is the Look-Good-Always phase [I’ll never see her without her face on; she’ll never see me without my stomach tucked in]. Hopefully, with time, the real thing reveals itself because willy-nilly my love and I are bound to step out into the abyss and the one asks for, and the other confers, forgiveness because sooner rather than later the need for forgiveness will arise since each of us is going to screw up.

How real the real thing is depends on the extent to which forgiveness - defanging the screw-ups - becomes habitual. That’s a hard standard; many settle for some optical illusion that, in the small print, allows for the opposite: holding grudges.

But be warned: holding grudges is sugar in the gas tank.

“Life is short. Spend your substance honoring your deathless dreams because that’s why they’re inside you.” – Arnold Kunst

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

27 June

Every one of us was born utterly deficient in this, or deficient in that. You might even say each of us has been dealt an utterly despairing hand – and now we’re meant, somehow, to play out that hand, morphing it into success. Even so, be assured you’ll get all of what counts on this side of the grave by taking seriously any one of the abiding urges – the innocent, abiding urges – you just can’t escape, and pursuing that urge with the persistence and imagination that success in any human endeavor demands. In other words, you’re to pursue it with relentless single-mindedness – Think Henry Ford putting America on wheels. To change the metaphor, you’re to bloom where you’re planted like a flower blossoming incongruously at 14,000 feet on some sheer alpine rock face.

“Grandfathers are just antique little boys.” Anonymous

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

26 June

The essence of being a Grandpa: You’re bouncing a grandchild on your knee, and eventually your knee becomes a little moist. So you raise the little bundle of joy into the air and say, "Doesn't this belong to someone?"

It’s called “Rent-a-Kid”!

“Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.” - D. H. Lawrence

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

June 27

People underestimated Lincoln at their peril. “He was as wise as a serpent in the trial of a case. I have got too many scars from his blows to certify that he was harmless as a dove.” - Leonard Swett, fellow lawyer and friend

"Follow your destiny - even if you're kicking and screaming!" - Anonymous

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

June 26

“Washington was a typical American. Napoleon was a typical Frenchman, but Lincoln was a humanitarian as broad as the world. He was bigger than his country — bigger than all the Presidents together.” - Leo Tolstoy

 

“Periodically you are called on to progress to a new phase of your life. That often means a new birth to a phase of greater profundity. You may not know where that phase will spring from, or what form it will take, or where it will lead, but like the deep stillness before a great storm, be aware that, if you but consent, primordial strength is gathering for a crescendo of magnificent proportions.” - Arnold Kunst

“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” – Coco Chanel

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

25 June

"Comfort zones are for breaking out of." - Arnold Kunst

“It’s amazing what you can get if you quietly, clearly and authoritatively demand it.” – Meryl Streep

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

25 June

Life is a treasure hunt. True, life can be harrowing, unjust, full of apparent contradiction and anxiety. Even so, we need to see positives proliferating all about us, and within us. For they are, like the air we breathe, so close to what and where we are that they are very difficult to perceive. They’re also far more potent than all the bad news we’re endlessly surrounded by.

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.” - Buddha

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

June 25

“The slave-breeders and slave-traders are a small, odious and detested class among you [the South]; and yet in politics they dictate the course of all of you, and are as completely your masters as you are the master of your own Negroes.” - Abraham Lincoln

“You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.” – Dr. Seuss

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

24 June

“Before you agree to do anything that might add even the smallest amount of stress to your life, ask yourself: ‘What is my truest intention?’ Give yourself time to let a yes resound within you. When it's right, I guarantee that your entire body will feel it.” - Oprah Winfrey

“Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations can never effect a reform.” – Susan B. Anthony

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

23 June

“It is but a slippery happiness which fortune can give and a frown can take, and not worth the owning which a night’s fire can melt or a rough sea can drown.” - Anonymous

“If we mean to have heroes, statesmen and philosophers, we should have learned women.” – Abigail Adams

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

22 June

“Dig for water long before the well runs dry.” - Anonymous

“I learned long ago never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.” - Anonymous

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

How to Handle a Woman: A Wrong Way

24 June

It’s Super Bowl Sunday and, to paraphrase Sigmund Freud, it’s homosexual bonding time. You’ve got all the guys at your place in front of the TV. Your wife is in the kitchen, and the munchies are running low. Even though you’re A Real Man you’re very, very sensitive to the phrase “what will others think,” so you yell out, “Hey, what are you doing out there? Bring in some more nachos and dip. And don’t forget the beer!” A few minutes later she brings in what you asked for. She doesn’t say a thing to you because all your friends are there and she doesn’t want to make a scene. No, she doesn’t say anything at all, but she does give you a look that would split atoms if you had bothered to notice. Oh, she’s going to blow, make no mistake about it. And, trust me on this, when she does, you’ll say with supremely validated self-pity, “Where the hell did that come from?” [God help your sense.]

“Your greatest contribution may not be something you do but someone you raise.” - Anonymous

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

23 June

I remember, vividly remember, an incident with my best friend Jerry when we were both aged four or so. One day while we were playing with our toy cars in his sand-box he stole my very favorite toy car and then pretended he hadn't. I lay awake for some time that night plotting my revenge: the next day I was going to pretend he was my friend and while we were playing I was going to slip one of his favorite cars into my pocket. I remember how the very prospect of getting even, laying there sleepless in my bed that night, was utterly delicious to revel in.

So, the next day I pretended we were friends as usual, and we began playing cars in his sand-box as we had the previous day. I continued playing and, when I got home at the end of the day, remembered the elaborate revenge I had planned, but then forgot to carry out! In the course of playing I found the car he had taken - he hadn't hidden it very well. Even so I initially felt bad that I had failed to get my delicious revenge - it was as if I had somehow let the team down. Then, that second night, it hit me: forgetting revenge and playing with a friend was maybe the better choice.

“Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace.” – Anonymous

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

22 June

The courage implicit in forgiveness divides the vibrant from all the look-alikes.

“Every significant achievement in human history started out being impossible.” - Anonymous

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

June 24

“Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature -- opposition to it is in his love of justice. These principles are in eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely, as slavery’s extension brings them, shocks, and throes, and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missouri Compromise -- repeal all compromises -- repeal the Declaration of Independence -- repeal all past history, you still cannot repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of man's heart that slavery's extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Make sure we can count on you.” - Arnold Kunst

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

June 23

“I say now, however, as I have all the while said that on the territorial question -- that is, the question of extending slavery under the national auspices -- I am inflexible. I am for no compromise which assists or permits the extension of the institution on soil owned by the nation.” - Abraham Lincoln

“All the wonders you seek in life lie deep inside yourself.” - Anonymous

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

June 22

“Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap -- let it be taught in schools, in seminaries and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books and in Almanacs; -- let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls and enforced in courts of justice. And in short let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.” - Abraham Lincoln

“We too often bind ourselves by authorities rather than by the truth.” - Lucretia Mott

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

21 June

“Good decisions come from wisdom. Unfortunately, wisdom only comes after lots of bad decisions.” - Will Rogers

“Dream big. We have a big God.” - Anonymous

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

20 June

“I am not an angel and do not pretend to be. That’s not one of my roles. But I am not the devil either. I am a woman and a serious artist, and I would like so to be judged.” – Maria Callas

“You won’t live a life worth remembering if you don’t do the impossible on a fairly regular basis.” - Anonymous

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

21 June

“Make no mistake about it: the definitive always win; the tentative always lose.” – Arnold Kunst

“Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I’ll use the first 4 sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln

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

20 June

You and I are supposed to work smart every day. Why? Because there are specific things that need doing today; they need to be prioritized so that all the immediate, intermediate and long-term goals are being catered to intelligently, thoroughly. As a result we’re meant to turn “Obstacles” into “opportunities” – we’re to insure the urgent doesn’t crowd out the important.

“Sí, se puede!” - Cesar Chavez

June 21

“It is an old and a true maxim, that a 'drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.” - Abraham Lincoln 

“Act as if it were impossible to fail.” - Anonymous

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

June 20

“If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Old-fashioned ways which no longer apply to changed conditions are a snare in which the feet of women have always become readily entangled.” – Jane Addams

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

19 June

“Be yourself. No one can say you’re doing it wrong.” – Charles Schultz

“A person’s a person, no matter how small.” – Dr.Seuss

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

18 June

“I believe that every person is born with talent.” - Maya Angelou

“Be an encourager. The world has plenty of critics already.” - Anonymous

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

19 June

Critics don’t produce. They represent the ultimate in Monday-morning quarterbacking - negating everything, risking nothing.

“No pressure, no diamonds.” – Thomas Carlyle

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

18 June

Scripture, wherever you look, always comforts, always challenges. Take the following: “What though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil.” The bad news is that there’s a lot of stuff out there to fear. The good news is that the “fear no evil” part is so categorical. The bad news is the death part. The good news is that it’s only the shadow of death and there’s literally nothing in a shadow. The bad news is there’s no view and precious little perspective in a valley. The good news is that none of it makes any difference because He’s the Shepherd and He’s got it ALL covered. 

“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” - E. M. Forester

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

June 19

Following Lincoln’s loss in the senate race against Stephen Douglas in 1858 he said, “I am glad I made the late race. It gave me a hearing on the great and durable questions of the age, which I could have had in no other way; and though I now sink out of view, and shall be forgotten, I believe I have made some marks which will tell for the cause of civil liberty long after I am gone.”

“When your wife is really angry, encourage her to talk out her rage. [Talking it out is better than acting it out.]” - Arnold Kunst

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

June 18

“I hold that while man exists it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind... I am for those means which will give the greatest good to the greatest number.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.” - Mother Teresa

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

17 June

“Don’t ever underestimate the profound impact you have on the little kids around you.” - Anonymous

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” - Voltaire

 

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

16 June

“You can be gorgeous at 30, charming at 40 and irresistible for the rest of your life.” – Coco Chanel

“The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity, and the brute by instinct.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

17 June

If you make a big deal out of a little deal, or a little deal out of a big deal, you’ll be pulled up short every time a dog barks.

Got guts?

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

16 June

You can win at poker with a pair of three’s; you can lose at poker with a royal flush. The important thing isn’t the hand you’ve been dealt but how you play it.

“Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing, and that was the closest our country has ever been to breaking even.” - Will Rogers

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

June 17

“I cannot understand why men should be so eager after money. Wealth is simply a superfluity of what we don't need.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Well done, is better than well said.” - Benjamin Franklin

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

June 16

“If the Confederacy fails, there should be written on its tombstone: ‘Died of a Theory.’” - Jefferson Davis

“Bless yourself. Open up. Dive in. Hug trees. Get wet. Be free.” - Anonymous

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

15 June

“I will not allow my life’s light to be determined by the darkness around me.” - Sojourner Truth

“When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.” – Winston Churchill

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

14 June

“Self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice.” - Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“I am come that ye may have life, and have it more abundantly.” – Jesus Christ

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

15 June

Life is always full, exciting, rich for those who go at it head on.

“Find out who you are, then do it on purpose.” – Anonymous

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

14 June

Itzhak Perlman, one of a handful of preternaturally gifted violinists in the world today, arrives at San Francisco International; he’s contracted to do the Beethoven violin concerto tomorrow night with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra at Davies Hall. He flew first-class, of course, he’ll stay in a very nice hotel, and he’ll receive $40,000 for his troubles.

Two things: first, since the concerto only takes about 40 minutes, someone with a bitter, pinched imagination will calculate that his fee works out to $1,000 per minute. Not true, of course. Factoring in the practice time, which by rights includes his focusing on mastering this instrument instead of doing lots of other things since the age of, say, four, the hourly rate drops down to something like three cents a month.

Second, he doesn’t say to himself as he clears customs, “I’ve got to get to a practice room at Davies Hall right away to go over that bear of a third movement!” Now, don’t get me wrong: that third movement IS a bear. But whatever other concerns he might have, he’s got that third movement down – after all, this is what he’s been doing since he was four, and he is supremely confident that when he gets to that third movement tomorrow night, as with the first and second movements, he’ll transport the entire audience to Beethoven’s own ethereal plane. There’ll be rehearsal time with that orchestra, of course, but with no sense of desperation, of panic. Since everybody will win, $40,000 is cheap at the price.

On the other hand, I don’t think it’s really the money that drives Perlman, at least not the principal thing, any more than the ego validation that comes from the applause. More important than all that is the role he plays in the ethereal realm which is where, as they say, he lives and moves and has his being - what you might call the high that comes from being Beethoven’s go-between. For there are three components at work here: composer, performer, audience. And when the performer honors the composer, right down to the last sfortzando, the composer, dead though he may be, is marvelously, wondrously alive yet again. That is, the composer is siphoned through this artist and this orchestra on this night in the presence of this audience. The performer is integral to feeding the soul of every person in that hall with the richness of Beethoven’s very own genius.

Like I say, $40,000 is cheap at the price, right?

"Let your own greatness suffice." - Arnold Kunst

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

June 15

“I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the Declaration of Independence ... that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I would rather be assassinated on the spot than surrender it.” - Abraham Lincoln

 

“Be more like a wild eagle than a domestic chicken. The eagle doesn't need to be with a flock of his own kind to feel good about himself, but is content with his own company; he uses his wings to fly, not just propel himself more quickly along the ground as he runs; he rides hot air currents at 1,800 feet that chickens don't even know exist; and he eats what he hunts, not what he's fed.” - Arnold Kunst