“Whatever the fight, don’t be ladylike.” – Mary Harris Jones [Mother Jones]

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

31 August 

“Mary Harris Jones [Mother Jones] is the most dangerous woman in America.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“Is there a fire in your belly?” – Anonymous

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

31 August 

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

Does a simple [inflexible] will act make all the difference, or what? 

Christopher Columbus did his sums and satisfied himself that he could get to the Orient [India] and the spice trade by sailing west.  Everybody, of course, knew he was crazy. The way to sail from Europe to India was to go south to the tip of Africa and turn left. Sailing east by sailing west was the same as saying yes by saying no. Crazy. And besides, if he sailed out of sight of land he’d eventually disappear because he'd fall off! 

He probably heard all this when he'd go in for a beer to his neighborhood bar; he certainly heard it from the non-professionals he approached - court after court after court - for the money to finance the thing. It is probable that his wife thought occasionally that she was saddled with a basket case! And when he did get his miserable fleet of three leaky little tubs two months into the Atlantic, he faced the threat of mutiny from a disheveled, indisciplined crew on short rations. There is no doubt in my mind that he would have ended up as nothing but a jumped-up footnote, a kind of historical freak, one of the legion of might-have-been’s, if he had decided to try to get the money together and see if the thing would work.  

The conclusion is obvious: success in any human endeavor, while it entails the persistent injection of organizational ability and imagination, is primarily the result of a will act implacably adhered to.

“Tough times don't last. Tough people do.” - Anonymous

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst August 31 “We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts - not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” - Abraham Lincoln 

“We need a new political movement of women and men toward a new society.” – Betty Friedan

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

30 August 

“There is sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.” - Washington Irving 

“Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.” – Winston Churchill

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

29 August 

“One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals.” – Michelle Obama

 

“I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant talkativeness.” - Cicero

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

30 August 

“The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.” – Winston Churchill

“Relish being in the eye of the storm.” - Anonymous

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

29 August 

Life often presents a fairly simple choice: do I want to cling to the security of what was once appropriate, or will I cut loose and be abundantly wealthy? Think about it - clinging fiercely to antiquated appropriateness, as to apparently validated self-pity, may seem oh, so delicious, but it comes at far too high a price. I am meant to adjust to the changes life offers like a sailor who trims his sails to fit into his purpose any moment's turn in the weather – and like that sailor, I refuse to abdicate my sovereignty by letting this or that commotion in the elements dictate how I handle the resource[s] at my command. 

After all, we cannot wish it otherwise: achievements NEVER happen in comfort zones.

“The tentative always lose, the definitive always win.” - Arnold Kunst

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

August 30 

“Welcome or unwelcome, agreeable or disagreeable, whether this shall be an entire slave nation is the issue before us.” - Abraham Lincoln 

“The power of the human spirit totally committed exceeds any other force on earth.” - Anonymous

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

August 29 

“Thoughtful men must feel that the fate of civilization upon this continent is involved in the issue of our contest.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.” - Samuel Johnson

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

28 August 

“Whenever a thing is done for the first time, it releases a little demon.” – Emily Dickinson

“What are you worth if you aren't eaten alive by a dream?” - Arnold Kunst

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

28 August 

My God ever calls me to wed apparent contradictions: 

•      I need to be still and knowing, expressing profound gratitude. 

•      I need to be up and doing, measuring up to profound challenge.

“This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave.” - Abraham Lincoln

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

August 28 

“Fear is an instructor of great sagacity and the herald of all revolutions. One thing he always teaches is that there is rottenness where he appears. He is a carrion crow; and although you see not well what he hovers for, there is death somewhere. Our property is timid, our laws are timid, our cultivated classes are timid. Fear for ages has boded and mewed and gibbered over government and property. That obscene bird is not there for nothing. He indicates great wrongs which must be revised.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“You pay God a compliment by asking great things of Him.” – St Theresa of Avila

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

27 August 

“If you want to drive to San Francisco don't postpone departure until all the lights are green. Take some reasonable precautions, then go for the thing you've decided to do.” - Arnold Kunst

“I want to live my life, not record it.” – Jackie Kennedy

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

26 August 

[On Bette Davis] “Even when I was carrying a gun, she scared the be-jesus out of me.” – Humphrey Bogart

“May your song always be sung.” - Anonymous

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

27 August 

Back in the 60’s I was in a Kingston-Trio type folk trio – we called ourselves “The Troubadors,” and we competed for Sonoma State University’s “Campus Talent ’65.” I played my guitar like a wooden Indian but had a pleasant tenor voice and did killer arrangements; the other guy had a croaky bass voice and couldn’t arrange himself out of a paper bag but whaled on a twelve-string; the girl couldn't hardly play her guitar and had a watery, nothing voice but was drop-dead gorgeous. In other words, we were nicely balanced. In addition we were color-coordinated: the other guy and I wore black shoes and socks, black slacks and matching two-tone green pin-striped shirts with button-down collars, and the girl wore black tights and shoes and a similar two-tone pin-striped dress – we LOOKED like The Real Thing which, I suppose, led to the conviction that we WERE The Real Thing. Finally, as it happened we actually got a paid gig [our one and only] for the night just before the competition - provide 30 minutes’ entertainment on a Friday night for a Church Altar Society at a nearby motel for which we received the princely sum of $5.00 each plus a free dinner. We figured that worked out to about $.06 per hour. In other words we were right at the boil for the competition the very next night. 

Hey, would you believe, the next night we won first place!!

“The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.” – Confucius

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

26 August 

“A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Fear knocked, Faith answered, and nobody was there.” - Anonymous

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

August 27 

Lincoln was troubled by a proneness to depression, a fascination with madness. He was afraid that it could happen to him. He did not drink because whiskey left him, as he himself said, feeling “flabby and undone.” Arguably one of his personal 3 AM demons [we all have 3 AM demons, don't we?] would threaten the destruction of his own reason, leaving him spinning in a mindless vortex without the power either to comprehend or gainsay. 

“Never confuse your net worth with your self worth.” - Anonymous

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

August 26 

“Mr. President, I’m from New York State where we believe that God Almighty and Abraham Lincoln are going to save this country.” Hearing this remark, Lincoln smiled and nodded. “My friend,” he said, “you’re half right.” 

“You don’t become what you want, you become what you believe.” – Oprah Winfrey

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

25 August 

“I never ran my train off the track, and I never lost a passenger.” – Harriet Tubman

“When a man is willing and eager the gods join in.” - Aeschylus

 “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

24 August 

Abe with a turkey-buzzard quill would write his name and say to his friend Dennis Hanks, "Denny, look at that, will you? 'Abraham Lincoln!’ That’s me. Don't look a bit like me!" And, said Dennis, "He'd stare at it a spell. 'Peared to mean a heap to Abe.”

“Infallibly, success gravitates toward those who are in it for the long pull. So, revel in being in it for the long pull.” - Arnold Kunst

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

23 August 

“Align your personality with your purpose, and no one can touch you.” – Oprah Winfrey

“If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.” – Mother Teresa

 From “Me Too 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

22 August 

“Grownups have a strange way of putting themselves in compartments and groups. They build up barriers of religion, of caste, of color, of party, of nation, of province, of language, of custom, and of wealth and poverty. They live in prisons of their own making.” - Jawaharlal Nehru

“The house of delusions is cheap to build but drafty to live in.” – A. E. Housman

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

25 August 

Your supposed skill at shaving off the pleasure of life and leaving behind the responsibility is the height of delusion – as if you can shave a coin so thin that it has only one side.

“There’s nothing wrong with the younger generation that becoming taxpayers won’t cure.” – Dan Bennett

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

24 August 

Blood transfusions began in the 1600’s. The first known case was of a 15-year-old boy receiving about 12 ounces of sheep’s blood.  As you can imagine, in those early days the thing was hit and miss. For example, people thought that volatile, hot-tempered people could be calmed by giving them the blood of a docile sheep or a cow. Even so, there were concerns about long-term changes and mutations. Would the patient with sheep’s blood in his veins end up with a sheep's head? Samuel Pepys mused in his diary about the possibilities: "This did give occasion to many pretty wishes, as of the blood of a Quaker to be let into an Archbishop, and such like." 

What was cutting-edge back then has, of course, become commonplace. We should be careful about the condescension thing, though. Like us, they were reacting to something completely new as best they could – we must honor the courage of our forebearers in much the same way that our descendents should honor our courage dealing with what, to them, may seem equally goofy.

“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” - Mark Twain

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

August 25 

It seems that everyone wrote off Lincoln’s chances for re-election in 1864 including The London Post which wrote this scathing dismissal a few days before the election: “Mr. Lincoln will go down to posterity as a man who could not read signs of the times nor understand the circumstances and interests of his own country, could not calculate his own resources nor appreciate those of his enemy, who had no political aptitude, who plunged his country into a great war without a plan, who failed without excuse and fell without a friend.” 

“Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind the stronger the trees.” - Anonymous

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

August 24 

“My friends: no one not in my situation can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place and the kindness of these people I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born and one is buried. I now leave not knowing when or whether ever I may return with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me and remain with you and be everywhere for good let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you as I hope in your prayers you will commend me I bid you an affectionate farewell.” - Abraham Lincoln, President-elect, Farewell Address, Springfield, Illinois on leaving for his inauguration, February, 1861 

“How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.” - Thomas Jefferson

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

August 23 

As a lawyer, Lincoln often discouraged people from bringing unnecessary lawsuits. Once, a man wanted him to bring a suit for $2.50 against a penniless man, and Lincoln could not talk him out of it. Lincoln charged him a retainer of $10.00, won the case, kept $5.00 for himself and gave the other $5.00 to the penniless defendant who promptly paid the $2.50 he owed and kept the rest for himself. Thus everyone involved won including the angry client who, though he paid dearly for it, felt his revenge vindicated. 

“Get loose and stay loose.” - Anonymous

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

August 22 

There was a long pause after Lincoln first read the original draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet; they were understandably silenced on hearing what was arguably the most profound, astounding document to issue from any presidential administration, before or since. Then eventually someone broke the silence with a suggested change. True to form, Lincoln came up with one of his signature stories. He said, “Gentlemen, this reminds me of the story of the farmer who had been away from home for some days, and when he was coming back was met by one of his farm hands who greeted him after this fashion: ‘Master, the little pigs is all dead.’ And, after a pause, ‘Oh, and the old sow's dead too, but I didn't like to tell you all at once.’” 

“It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.” - Abraham Lincoln

 From “Me Too 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

21 August  

“Be comfortable asking for forgiveness when you offend; be comfortable granting forgiveness when you are offended. If heaven forms a significant portion of your view of reality that’s important advice because the alternative is a relentless buildup of recrimination that heaven clearly finds utterly repugnant.” - Arnold Kunst

“I’d rather die on an adventure than live standing still.” – V. E. Schwab

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

21 August 

Life isn't always easy; get used to it. Sometimes it's grueling, often grubby. It can be replete with injustices flung inescapably in your face. Often it's a lonely 3AM-type journey into a desert as distinctive to you as your fingerprints, as inevitable as the journey of a fetus down the birth canal.

“Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God.” - George Washington

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

August 21 

“We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this; but God knows best and has ruled otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge His wisdom and our own error therein.” - Abraham Lincoln 

“Loving isn’t for wimps.” - Anonymous

 From “Me Too 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

20 August 

“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” – Audre Lorde

“Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have.” – Buddha

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

20 August

“The god of victory is said to be one-handed, but Peace gives victory to both sides.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The man who has no imagination has no wings.” - Muhammad Ali

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

August 20 

In the 1850's Lincoln was involved in a high-profile case arguing for a steam ship company against a railroad company. The issue had to do with low-lying tressles across a river. In his summation to the jury the lawyer for the railroad argued brilliantly as to why the burgeoning economic prosperity of the entire region demanded free and unfettered access to bridges across rivers. His summary took over an hour. Lincoln's summary was one sentence: “What this jury has to decide is whether one group has more right to cross a river than another has to go up and down that same river.”  He won the case. 

“I have a dream.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

 From “Me Too 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

19 August 

“Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possibility.” - Oprah Winfrey

“Music gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” - Plato

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

19 August 

Arnold Kunst and the Piano, Part Two 

In September 1964 when I arrived at Sonoma State [history major, music minor] I went to the employment office and filled out a generic job application form. I put down things like cutting lawns and washing dishes, but also put down something about teaching piano lessons to little kids. [Since I had already taught all of three lessons to the 5-year-old kid next door the previous month, I considered myself a combat veteran!] 

I forgot all about it, but about a month later I got a call from that office and was told to contact this family near the campus – the parents wanted music lessons for their two 9-year-old twins and had contacted the college to see if they could score cheaply with a music major. Or in my case, a music minor.  I never looked back. Before November was out I had 7 students, or 3.5 hours of teaching, and made out like a bandit. Go figure: I charged those 7 kids $2.50 for their weekly half-hour lessons. That’s $17.50 every week [point of comparison: back then a pack of Marlborough cigarettes cost 25 cents].  

My girl friend and I had a blast on the proceeds!

“You start out life with a brain that is a bowl of Jell-o; it’s your job to turn it into a steel trap. If you don’t, the other guy is going to eat your lunch every day and, other than a persistent mid-day hunger, you’ll be so dim you won’t even be aware that that’s what’s happening.” - Arnold Kunst

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

August 19 

“If A can prove however conclusively that he may of right enslave B why may not B snatch the argument and prove equally that he may enslave A? You say A is white and B is black. It is color then, the lighter having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule you are to be a slave to the first man you meet with a fairer skin than your own. You do not mean color exactly? You mean the whites are intellectually the superiors of the blacks and therefore have the right to enslave them? Take care again. By this rule you are to be the slave to the first man you meet with an intellect superior to your own. But say you it is a question of interest; and if you can make it your interest you have the right to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his interest he has the right to enslave you.” - Abraham Lincoln

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." - 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States

 From “Me Too 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

18 August 

What came to be called the 19th amendment had a long pedigree. It had been proposed in Congress in 1878, and in every Congress after that. Finally, in 1919, it narrowly passed both houses of Congress and was sent to the states to be ratified. After a protracted struggle characterized by much male condescension that a later age would decry as male chauvinist piggery, it all came down to Tennessee where the state legislature was tied 48 to 48. 

The decision came down to one vote: that of 24-year-old Harry Burn, the youngest state legislator. He had been expected to vote against it, but he had in his pocket a note from his mother, which read: "Dear Son: Hurrah, and vote for suffrage! Don't keep them in doubt. I noticed some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet. Don't forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the 'rat' in ratification. Your Mother." [Mrs. Catt was Carrie Chapman Catt, a patient but formidable woman of vast political sagacity, the head of the National American Women Suffrage Association and soon-to-be founder of the League of Women Voters.] 

Harry Burn did as his mother asked and voted in favor of the amendment. 27,000,000 women were enfranchised  

[Only time would tell whether the dark forebodings lurking below the surface of the following late 19th century cartoons would bear fruit.]

“A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.” – Carl Sandburg

From “Me Too 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

17 August 

“The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes.” – St Teresa of Avila

“The wise man doesn’t give the right answers, he poses the right questions.” – Claude Levi-Strauss

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

18 August 

Some questions in life have answers that are not nuanced, or subtle, or conditional. I used to make that point to the guys in my prison classroom by reminding them how inadequate they'd find the following exchange with their girlfriends: "So, tell me: are you pregnant?" "Well, yes and no."

“Oh, if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women! There is so much yet to be done.” – Susan B. Anthony

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

17 August 

Go for perfection. My friend Bill used to tell the students in his high school English class that whenever he assigned an essay to them it was already perfect, down to the last semicolon. Their problem was, they would have to massage it often enough until it got to that point. Impatience was the temptation - an essay handed in before all the rewrites are completed, he used to remind them, is just like taking a cake out of the oven half way through the baking process because you’re hungry. The final product is called “Half-baked!”  

Like, who wants to drink a piece of cake?

“Whenever a door shuts, be alert for the window that's already opened.” - Anonymous

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst August 18 “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

“’Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the Lord Who has compassion on you.” - Isaiah

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst August 17 “I expect to maintain this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my term expires, or Congress or the country forsake me.” - Abraham Lincoln 

“Great change dominates the world, and unless we move with change we will become its victims.” – Bobby Kennedy

 From “Me Too 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

16 August 

“It is useless to talk virtue to a starving girl.” – Anna Howard Shaw

“Never in the history of calming down has someone calmed down by being told to calm down.” - Anonymous

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

16 August 

When I thought of going to work as a teacher in a state prison my imagination, perhaps understanbably, went a little goofy. I was convinced that my paltry book smarts wouldn’t stand a chance against all their vaunted street smarts. I vividly imagined myself standing at the board trying to explain how to add 7 and 4 without taking off your shoes and socks, and in the process get a very sharp pencil jammed into my carotid artery. This imaginative construct, of course, concluded with the very real possibility of my sinking to the floor in an ever-widening puddle of my own blood as I hit the garage-door-opener alarm on my belt in the vain hope that the cops would waddle from hither and yon to my defense. 

Needless to say, nothing like that ever happened - eventually common sense kicked in and I concluded that I’d probably do just fine if I saw to it that my classroom was a fun place to be. That is, I started my teaching career with the California Department of Corrections and Rehibilitation with the following marching orders from me to me, very consciously stated and hopefully enough to do the trick: “a laughing inmate is not a stabbing inmate!”  

Simple, isn’t it?