“Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.” - Charles M. Schulz

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

31 January 

"Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before." - Mae West

“A boy is a noise with dirt on it.” - Anonymous

From "The Human Condition: A User's Manual," by Arnold Kunst

31 January 

Little Johnny Stories IV 

As any parent can attest, little Johnny, even at two years of age, can plot out a course of action to his maximum advantage [just like you and I can]. Yet he can sometimes make a startling mistake [just like you and I can]. For example, when he hasn't had his nap he’s sure to be a little crabby, and that might mean he just might shoot himself in the foot. Like, daddy lovingly says to him, "Johnny, how would you like to" - and before daddy can finish the part about going to the ice cream store Johnny blurts out  "NO!"  

Conclusion: a crabby little kid can be as foolish as a crabby adult. 

“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” - John F. Kennedy

 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.

“Adventure is worthwhile in itself.” - Amelia Earhart

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

30 January 

“I can beat any two players in this tournament by myself. If I need any help, I’ll let you know.” - Babe Didrikson Zaharias

“History is ever changed by those who accept the adventure right in front of them.” - Anonymous

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

30 January 

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember: amateurs built the ark; professionals built the Titanic.

“Doubt not, oh poet, but persist. Say, ‘It is in me, and shall out!’” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

 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

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” – The Bible

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

29 January 

“I have spent many years of my life in opposition, and I rather like the role.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“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 

29 January 

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

“Don't make me come down there!” - God

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.’”

“We carry within us the wonders we seek outside us.” - Sir Thomas Browne

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

28 January 

“How could you not love Norman Mailer? He was a total chauvinist, but also so vulnerable.” – Gloria Steinem

“The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.” - Harriet Beecher Stowe

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

27 January 

“Don’t use propaganda with your children. Live creatively. Your children are not fools. They will not mind your mistakes. They will get the message.” – Jonathan Hanaghan

“We build Heaven on the edge of a 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.

“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

 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

“No pressure - no diamonds.” - Thomas Carlyle

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

January 27 

“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.” - Abraham Lincoln

“You just can’t recognize people enough because they – we - are all starved for recognition. All real winners are generous that way.” - Arnold Kunst

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

26 January 

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” - Mother Teresa

“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 

26 January 

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’s gotten comfortable relying on three hot’s and a cot. Without his even realizing it, he has become, as they say, a consumer of correctional services - he gets, say, a two-year sentence, then gets paroled, then inside the space of a baseball season [maybe by 7:30 the night he gets out!] 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 this 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!

“A man with a good book is never alone.” - John Adams

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 26

“The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I haven't read.” - Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln, the Gold Standard Part Five

 Here are a few more Lincoln quotes: how does Donald Trump, as well as your other favorite heroes and villains, stack up against The Best?  

Enjoy! 

Arnold Kunst 

Introducing Abraham Lincoln to the 21st Century 

www.AbeLincolnNow.com

  - “I shall try to correct errors where shown to be errors and I shall adopt new views as fast as they shall appear to be true views.” - Abraham Lincoln

  - “I am not ashamed to confess that 25 years ago I was a hired laborer, hauling rails, at work on a flatboat – just what might happen to any poor man’s son. I want every man to have a chance.” – Abraham Lincoln  

- “If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is the drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what you will, is the great high road to his reason, and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause… On the contrary, assume to dictate to his judgment, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his heart; and though your cause be naked truth itself… you shall no more be able to reach him, than to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw.” - Abraham Lincoln

  - “In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve…Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which if followed the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless.” - Abraham Lincoln

  - [Lincoln] “treated Negroes as they wanted to be treated - as human beings... Negro visitors to the White House were treated without false heartiness, but without any sign of disdain. Never condescending, Lincoln did not talk down to Negroes, nor did he spell out his thoughts in one-syllable language of the first reader.” - Frederick Douglass [ex-slave

“Give freely and abundantly because you have been super-blessed and enriched. That way you will always be super-blessed and enriched. It's a law of psychic dynamics that nobody can break.” – Arnold Kunst

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

25 January 

“I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember: amateurs built the ark; professionals built the Titanic.” - Anonymous

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

24 January 

“Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ‘I'm with you, kid. Let's go!’'' - Maya Angelou

“Be a good person, but don’t waste time proving it.” – Anonymous

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

24 January

One of life’s greatest tragedies, one of its yawning blasphemies, is the unchallenged conviction that my efforts aren’t worth making.

Lincoln, the Gold Standard Part Four Here are a few more Lincoln quotes: how does Donald Trump, as well as your other favorite heroes and villains, stack up against The Best? Enjoy! Arnold Kunst Introducing Abraham Lincoln to the 21st Century www.AbeLincolnNow.com

   - Many managers and supervisors “are corrupted by power; most tend to pressure or dictate when simple suggestions or recommendations would suffice. And almost always there is a lack of understanding of the simple points of human nature, such as a person’s reaction at being ordered to do something rather than being asked his or her opinion.” - Abraham Lincoln

   - “Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal feeling.” - Abraham Lincoln

  - “Everything I say, you know, goes into print. If I make a mistake it doesn’t merely affect me or you, but the country. I therefore ought at least to try not to make mistakes. If, then, a general demonstration be made tomorrow evening, and it is agreeable, I will endeavor to say something and not make a mistake without at least trying carefully to avoid it.” - Abraham Lincoln

  - “Passion has helped us, but can do so no more. It will in the future be our enemy. Reason – cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason – must furnish all the materials for our future support and defense.” - Abraham Lincoln

   - “The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to have the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We - even we here - hold the power, and bear the responsibility.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Character is doing what's right when nobody's looking.” - J. C. Watts

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

January 24 

“Adhere to your purpose and you will soon feel as well as you ever did. On the contrary if you falter and give up you will lose the power of keeping any resolution and will regret it all your life.” - Abraham Lincoln 

“Don’t compare your uniqueness to anybody else’s.” – Anonymous

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

23 January 

“Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” – Betty Friedan

“The Walking Academy is right next door to The Mommies & Daddies School on the campus of the College of Hard Knocks.” – Arnold Kunst

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

23 January 

Little Johnny Stories III 

For some time now little Johnny is happy to have the increased freedom of movement that thumping and bumping around on the floor offers him. Then gradually it dawns on his pre-speech mind that he needs to leave off imitating the cat and the dog [his first experience with time-and-motion]. He notices that cats and dogs are natural four-leggers, and it’s becoming clear that he’s not. After all, mommy and daddy and every other person in his world gets around on their back two, so he needs to matriculate from four to two.  

The transition, of course is neither smooth nor easy. Consider the day that the whole family is there, sitting in a circle for THOSE FIRST FEW STEPS. Mommy’s holding Johnny’s little hands, and Daddy, a few feet away, says dramatically, “Ok, Johnny, come to Daddy! Come to Daddy!” Mommy lets go, cameras are poised, everyone’s tingling with excitement. Then Johnny wobbles on his bow-legs, and… FALLS!  

Does Daddy pick the kid up and throw him into his crib and say, “Ok, Johnny, you’ve had your chance to walk – that’s you finished”? No! Loving the child means they'll encourage him even when he fails in his attempts. How long will they encourage Johnny to walk? Until he actually succeeds. [I think there a lesson here for you and me, right?]

Lincoln, the Gold Standard Part Three

 Here are a few more Lincoln quotes: how does Donald Trump, as well as your other favorite heroes and villains, stack up against The Best?  

Enjoy! 

Arnold Kunst Introducing Abraham Lincoln to the 21st Century 

www.AbeLincolnNow.com

  - “If to be the head of Hell is as hard as what I have to undergo here, I could find it in my heart to pity Satan himself.” - Abraham Lincoln

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

  - “Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.” - Abraham Lincoln 

 - “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” - Abraham Lincoln

  - “I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. I am living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father's child has.” - Abraham Lincoln

“And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

January 23 

During the run-up to the presidential election of 1864 the Republican Party appeared in complete disarray and the opposition rejoiced. One who was clearly disturbed about what appeared to be the impending defeat of the Republican ticket came to Lincoln about it. The president seemed oddly unfazed by the whole thing. “It is not worth fretting about; it reminds me of an old acquaintance who having a son of a scientific turn bought him a microscope. The boy went around experimenting with his glass on everything that came his way. One day at the dinner table his father took up a piece of cheese. ‘Don't eat that, father’ said the boy; ‘it is full of wrigglers.’ ‘My son,” replied the old gentleman, taking at the same time a huge bite, ‘let 'em wriggle; I can stand it if they can.'”

Lincoln, the Gold Standard Two

 Here are a few more Lincoln quotes: how does Donald Trump, as well as your other favorite heroes and villains, stack up against The Best? 

Enjoy! 

Arnold Kunst 

Introducing Abraham Lincoln to the 21st Century 

www.AbeLincolnNow.com

 - “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

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

 - “How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a let? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” – Abraham Lincoln

 - “Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world?” - Abraham Lincoln

 - “We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.” - Abraham Lincoln

“A man should be upright, not be kept upright.” – Marcus Aurelius

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

22 January 

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” - Barack Obama

"If you don't risk anything, you risk even more." - Anonymous

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

22 January 

“Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.” - Ray Bradbury

“Be sincere; be brief; be seated.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

January 22 

“Fellow citizens: I have been solicited by many friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet like the old woman's dance. I am in favor of the national bank; I am in favor of the internal improvement system and a high protective tariff. These are my sentiments and political principles. If elected I shall be thankful; if not it will all be just the same.” - Abraham Lincoln [aged 23]

The gold standard

 We’ve got a new president. Half the country is rejoicing, the other half seething. Trump was the greatest president in history, and Biden will be the worst. No, Trump was the worst president, and Biden the best. So, who’s right? In a goofy world in which 2 + 2 = 17, how do we determine greatness? Are there any objective standards we can apply?  I’d like to suggest Abraham Lincoln is the gold standard we can apply – to Trump, to Biden, to any of them.     

Here are a few Lincoln quotes: how do your favorite heroes and villains stack up against The Best? [I’ll give you a few more quotes over the next few days. Enjoy!]  

Arnold Kunst  

Introducing Abraham Lincoln to the 21st Century  

www.AbeLincolnNow.com

        - “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.” – Abraham Lincoln

    - “Fellow-citizens we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation.” - Abraham Lincoln

     - “First convince a man that you are his sincere friend. Therein is the drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what you will, is the great high road to his reason, and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause.” - Abraham Lincoln     - 

“I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.” - Abraham Lincoln

     - “If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Above all things, reverence yourself.” - Pythagoras

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

21 January 

“Anyone who truly loves God travels securely.” - Saint Teresa of Avila

“Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it’s because you’ve started to think of failure.” - Tommy Lasorda

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

 20 January 

“Enemies are so stimulating.” – Katherine Hepburn

“You are NOT an accident.” - Anonymous

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

21 January 

Imagine this: there’s a banquet to start soon in, say, Buckingham Palace. In attendance are the most powerful leaders of the world, all standing around drinking cocktails in a large reception area just outside the banquet room. Then someone who’s never been elected dog catcher walks to through the crowd to the microphone at the front of the room and commands everyone’s attention. They all, like sheep, step to the side, moving out of his way and they quiet down as he tells them to enter the banquet hall because they’re ready to start.  Why are they like sheep? Because at that moment this guy’s the only person in that whole group who’s moving with a sense of purpose. Maybe you and I – those of us who have not been elected dog catcher either - should move with a similar sense of purpose?

“Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.” – Suzy Kassem

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

 20 January 

Once I make a commitment that’s firm a surprisingly pliant universe will ultimately conspire to make it happen. If that process is not clear to me it’s probably because that commitment is more wobbily than firm.

“One doesn't have a sense of humor. It has you.” - Larry Gilbert

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

January 21 

After relieving General George McClellan of command of the Army of the Potomac Lincoln was asked what he would reply to McClellan's earlier advice on how to carry on the affairs of the nation. And Lincoln answered: “nothing - but it makes me think of the man whose horse kicked up and stuck his foot through the stirrup. The man said to the horse, 'if you're going to get on I'm going to get off.'” 

“Every politician should have been born an orphan and remain a bachelor.” - Lady Bird Johnson

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

January 20

They say that Senator Benjamin Wade kept a sawed-off shotgun in his desk in the Senate chamber during the Civil War. Just in case. 

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

19 January 

“Study the rules so you won’t beat yourself by not knowing something.” - Babe Didrikson Zaharias

"We judge ourselves by our intentions, others by their behavior." - Anonymous

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

19 January 

One day Joe, my teacher supervisor where I worked in a California state prison and one of my all-time greatest heroes, told me about the fun he had on a road trip from LA to San Diego a few years ago. He was doing mandatory research for the Department of Corrections, and was thinking at the outset, “this is going to be wall-to-wall B-O-R-I-NG! –  freeways and plastic and smog stretching as far as the eye could see.” [If you don’t believe me, think of the following square-circle type contradiction: the sparkling architectural innovations awaiting discovery in a state prison complex.] 

But Joe was going to see to it that this trip wasn’t going to be boring for him! He said that when he got to Malibu he decided break his trip and treat himself to a mocha. But he didn’t want to go to Starbucks – they were ok, he said, but every Starbucks mocha was The Same – from New York to Nirobi. They produced, he said, a kind of multinational corporate liquid construct.  

No, he wanted to try out a mocha from some offbeat place. So after passing on a few places he eventually found a hanging-gardens-of-Babylon coffee shop in Malibu on the Pacific Coast Highway, overlooking the Pacific, and when he placed his order - “small extra hot no-whip 2% mocha” - the girl asked him for his name in the usual way, but when he gave it to her she didn’t write it down on the side of a paper cup the way other coffee shops did - even Starbucks. No, she typed his name into the cash register!  

Now, that sort of thing is fairly commonplace today, but it was the first time he had ever seen it. Joe said the excitement of doing this grass roots “scientific” survey was really kicking in. Before he knew it he was looking for what he called the totality of the coffee-shop experience, with the quality of the mocha the single most important, but certainly not the only, consideration! Once he got his mocha he picked up what he called an orphaned newspaper and headed toward a chair on the small patio just beyond the completely exposed west wall of the place.  And just outside was a burgeoning sunset to die for over a beach straight out of heaven. He pretended to read the paper and dawdled over his drink while he watched a volleyball game there on the beach in front of him.   

It was beautiful scene: the sea breeze, the seagulls, the distant sound of a soft Pacific surf, the subtle taste of salt on his lips, the distinctive tang of the expresso/chocolate combination. For Joe time stood still. Despite the caffeine jezz-up, he felt surprisingly relaxed, refreshed when he got back on the road. Other than the fact that the mocha itself was relatively tepid [so much for “extra hot!”] what he summarized as The Malibu Mocha Experience would be tough to top.  

The next day after Joe finished his bit of business in San Diego, he headed out toward the zoo where he found another, different, hanging-gardens-of-Babylon coffee shop. Before he placed his order Joe made mention of his own bit of research; after all it had become a big deal for him! “Can you guys top the Malibu mocha experience?” he asked.  The place was kind of quiet at the time and all three of the baristas heard what Joe said and, maybe because they were bored themselves, were paying rapt attention.  Needless to say, they looked eager! “I’ll give you my final verdict at the end, ok?” Joe said to them.True, the order didn’t get typed into the cash register; instead, the guy actually wrote it out low-tech on a paper cup, then handed it to the gal who actually made it. “Points lost here?” thought Joe, then wisely decided, “the jury’s still out.” While he waited the girl asked, “Did you say you wanted that with low fat milk or regular?” “Low fat’s fine,” Joe said, “just hold the cream. We’re talking heart-jolting caffeine here, right? We don’t want to OD on the health thing.”  

When the mocha arrived it was just right – neither tongue-burning nor tepid, just the right caffeine kick, just the right chocolate tang. As he went to sit down with another orphaned newspaper he noticed a surfer dude with a pony-tail walk in. The guy had just stepped out of a 10-year-old Mercedes and ordered a double caramel latte. Then he found a table and chair where he plugged in his lap-top. Joe thought he looked a little seedy - “a faded hippie,” Joe called him – too much sun, too little security, too much weed, too little sleep.  

The more Joe surreptitiously watched this guy the more he seemed like one of the original Beach Boys – a somewhat flabby bronzed California Adonis straight out of the 60’s. Once the guy started pecking away at that laptop, he immediately seemed to lose all sense of time and space.  

In Joe’s [feverish?] imagination the guy, on his last emotional legs, was finishing up The Great American Screenplay. His imagination drifted illogically to that actor in The Wrestler – down to his last reserves, barely able to scrape together the bus fare to get to lunch with his good friend Sean Penn.  

After awhile the surfer dude left, and then so did Joe. But first he gave his final verdict to three coffee drink-producing grunts who hung on Joe’s every word. The outside view in Malibu, he said, was more interesting than the inside view in San Diego [the baristas looked like someone just killed their cat]; the surfer dude partially balanced out the view thing; but the deciding factor was the mocha itself: the Malibu mocha wasn’t as dead-on as the San Diego mocha [the three lit up like Christmas trees]. So Joe left them a $5 tip. Those three workers were elated – not so much by the $5 tip but by the excitement that seemed to follow this distinctive customer.  

What became clear to those baristas had long since been clear to me: when Joe was involved, everybody won, and nobody won more than Joe who turned a boring, concrete-laden road trip into the ultimate, timeless Pooh adventure.

“A remark generally hurts in proportion to its truth.” - Will Rogers

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

January 19 

Logical inconsistencies did not get past the razor-sharp mind of Abraham Lincoln. During the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858 Lincoln dismissed Douglas’s argument with devastating effect. “Any attempt to twist his views into a call for perfect social and political equality with Negroes was but a specious and fantastic arrangement of words, by which a man can prove a horse chestnut to be a chestnut horse.” - Abraham Lincoln

“You can’t have freedom and avoid the ‘ought.’” – Jonathan Hanaghan

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

18 January 

“Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“I must have been an annoying child.” - Chmamanda Ngozi Adiche

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

18 January 

Little Johnny Stories II: 

We only learn by making mistakes. Somewhere along the line little Johnny at 14 months bit into a strawberry. He encountered something soft, and a little seedy with a subtle sweetness that he will eventually come to know as very distinctive. Then he happens on a rubber ball that’s the same color, and almost the same shape and size as a strawberry. And since he’s teething he’s got a vested interest in biting down on everything in sight, so he goes to work on this thing with the vague notion that it will taste like a strawberry because it looks like a strawberry. 

But it isn’t a strawberry. True, it “gives” when he bites down on it, but in just a little while he discovers that the flavor’s different – very different. And when he chews the thing for long enough he ends up biting off some of the rubber. That’s when he finds out that it doesn’t taste anything like the strawberry. But then neither do all the cat- and dog-hairs the ball continuously picks up on the floor once the ball gets wet. In short, he will figure out the hard way that a red ball that looks like a strawberry is NOT a strawberry. 

Hey, kid, welcome to the College of Hard Knocks. Stay at it long enough, take enough of the necessary courses, and eventually you’ll graduate, just like the rest of us – maybe even graduate with honors!

“All that glitters is not gold.” - Shakespeare

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

17 January 

If it doesn’t work out the loser’s elbow will fall off. 

If it doesn’t work out the winner will move on to the next thing.

“If I were given the opportunity to present a gift to the next generation it would be the ability for each individual to learn to laugh at himself.” - Charles M. Schulz

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

January 18 

After losing the Senate race to Stephen Douglas, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, in 1858, Lincoln said he felt like the boy who stubbed his toe: “it hurt too bad to laugh and he was too big to cry.”

“Eagles don’t take flight lessons from chickens.” - Anonymous

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

17 January 

“Childbirth is more admirable than conquest, more amazing than self-defense, and as courageous as either one.” – Gloria Steinem

“If you ever find happiness by hunting for it, you will find it, as the old woman did her lost spectacles, safe on her own nose all the time.” - Josh Billings

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

16 January 

“Don’t touch her to touch her – touch her to tell her something.” – Jonathan Hanaghan

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” - Henry David Thoreau

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

16 January 

“If a man is not willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he’s no good.” - Ezra Pound

“Truth suffers, but never dies.” – St Theresa of Avila

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

12 January  

“Two men came down from the Sermon on the Mount, and one says to the other, ‘Wasn’t that fantastic! Imagine, the poor in spirit are blessed, not the rich – that means you and I have a chance!’ The other guy says, ‘I don’t know, it was a little chilly up there. I should have brought a jacket.’ The moral of this story: the only thing we pick up on is what we’re open to. Even Jesus Christ can’t change that!” - Arnold Kunst

“Don’t be overly concerned with personal criticism. If it’s valid, bend to it; if it’s not, step around it.” - Anonymous

From "Lincoln 365," by Arnold Kunst

17 January

"You say you will not fight to free the Negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you, but no matter. Fight you, then, exclusively to save the Union.” – Abraham Lincoln

“Great men suffer hours of depression through introspection and self-doubt. That is why they are great. That is why you will find modesty and humility the characteristics of such men.” - Bruce Barton

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst January 

16 Abraham 

Lincoln once said he couldn’t stand the prospect of wringing the neck of a chicken and yet ironically found himself in the intolerable position as Commander in Chief of actively willing the continuance of a war that was resulting in the deaths of thousands and thousands of men. 

"Needed: more teats, less piglets." – Anonymous

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

15 January 

“I want you to be concerned about your next-door neighbor. Do you know your next-door neighbor?” - Mother Teresa

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

15 January 

LIFE IN PRISON, PART TWO 

I remember a conversation I overheard during orientation before I began my teaching job at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville. It was in the reception area; two buses with newly-arrived inmates had just arrived and two guys who got off those buses clearly knew eath other. Here’s what I heard: “Hay, Bill, I haven’t seen you since Folsom. What are you in for?” “No, Fred, it was San Quinten. Parole violation; 18 months. What about you?” “I got a new beef. 18 months too.” “Oh, ok.”  What struck me was now casual all that sounded. Like, if you’re, say, 37 and you’ve got an 18-month hitch you’re going to spend your 38th birthday in prison. Trust me on this: there’ll be no cake on your 38th, no candles, no family, no loved ones, no gifts, no one telling you how glad they are that you’re on this planet. None of that. That birthday is gong to be just another tasteless day watching your fingernails grow - just like twenty bazillion other days before that day, and after. Unquestioned waste stretching out, extending far beyond the furthest frontier. And because it’s so unquestioned, the end of those 18 months isn’t going to make any appreciable difference. That is, each guy will get out inside 18 months, but each will be back inside prison before the end of a baseball season.  Beating the odds takes more than the passage of those 18 months, trust me on that.

“A high station in life is earned by the gallantry with which appalling circumstances are survived with grace.” - Tennessee Williams

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

January 15 

“How miserably things seem to be arranged in the world! If we have no friends we have no pleasure; and if we have them we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss.” - Abraham Lincoln