“The soul is healed by being with children.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

29 December

“Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven.” – Henry Ward Beecher

“I don’t want to promise heaven unless I can bring it to you. I can only see a little distance up the road.” – Woodrow Wilson

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

29 December

“A distinctive facet to Lincoln's abiding appeal was the matchless power of his words – an absolute essential in a leader of men since we humans are creatures that live and move and have our being in a world of words as fish in a world of water and birds in a world of air. 

One reason his words were so powerful was that he used them so judiciously. How often did he say that his personal inclination was to refrain from saying anything unless he sought to achieve some good by it? [By contrast, how many politicians do you and I know who are firm believers that there is no such thing as bad publicity, who simply can’t resist the seductive power of a TV crew?] But when Lincoln did have something to say, the subtle alchemy of his words had a way of sweeping up his audience into his world with the concerted power of one who is master of that world down to the final semi-colon. And since writing was a skill he practiced virtually all his life, he could – and did – impress effortlessly. That is the part of what came to be called the Gettysburg Address that is ho-hum - he put relatively little time into its composition because he had little time to give to it [Presidential speech writers were the invention of some other century]. But that condition applied to virtually his entire literary output. He wrote in keeping with his own early description of his politics – short and sweet like the old lady’s dance with no wasted movements. In short, whatever left his pen habitually had had all the dross already burnt off, leaving only a residue of pure gold.” – Arnold Kunst

“Life is always full, exciting, rich for those who go at it head on.” - Arnold Kunst

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

December 29

“You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.” - Abraham Lincoln

"If you can’t imagine it, you can’t have it.” – Toni Morrison

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

28 December

“Whoever controls work and wages, controls morals.” – Susan B. Anthony

“If you love the sacred but despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in the ocean of delusion.” -Anonymous

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

28 December

On a good day a loser’s self-awareness extends as far as telling the bartender, “Tommy, gimme two double Scotches, and call the cops!”

“Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.” - Theodore Roosevelt

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

December 28

“The colored population is the great available, and yet unavailed of, force for restoring the Union. The bare sight of fifty thousand armed, and drilled black soldiers on the banks of the Mississippi would end the rebellion at once.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” – Margaret Mead

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

27 December

“Forget what the world thinks of you stepping out of your place; think your best thoughts, speak your best words, work your best works, looking to your own conscience for approval. ” Susan B. Anthony

“Failure is not the opposite of success - it’s part of success.” - Anonymous

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

27 December

“If the loser were an airplane he’d rust out on the runway.

If the winner were an airplane he’d wear out in the air.” – Arnold Kunst

“If you're not careful your worrying will give big shadows to small things.” - Anonymous

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

December 27

“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” - Abraham Lincoln

“A well-educated mind will always have more questions than answers.” – Helen Keller

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

26 December

“My hands were weak, but I reached them out / To feebler ones than mine, / And over the shadow of my life / Stole the light of a peace divine.” – Frances Harper

“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth. ” - George Washington

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

26 December

Our true home is outside time and space. That explains the fascination humans have with all common denominators: with love, justice, beauty, truth – concepts that, like us, are rooted outside time and space.

“Change is certain; growth is optional.” - Anonymous

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

December 26

Lincoln's cabinet was a team of egos as well as rivals. Each of them was ambitious, opinionated, strong-willed. A goodly number of them believed the presidency was rightfully theirs and only by an accident of fate did it belong to the gangly prairie lawyer they each - initially - thought they could manipulate. They each came to find out otherwise. Even so, they made up a balanced Cabinet, representing all the discordant elements not just in the party but also in the country.

“In the end, dear friend, it is always between us and God, not between us and them.” – Mother Teresa

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

25 December

The Christmas story as told in the Bible starts out naturally enough, in a kind of a way: A very poor man and his very poor and very pregnant wife, forced by faceless authorities to unwanted travel, can’t find adequate lodgings for the night and end up in somebody’s barn where the woman gives birth. That kind of thing happens all the time, even if it may not happen in your experience or mine. But the story includes elements that are, to say the least, very strange indeed. Shepherds show up to worship the child whose birth was told them by angels. And a little later three wise men, or three kings, show up from the east talking of following a star and offering unusual gifts to that same child. As you can imagine, all this must have perplexed the mother beyond belief. 

The Bible summarizes her reaction like this: “…but Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” I wonder if you and I shouldn’t follow that same two-pronged reaction –“treasure” and “ponder” – as we attempt to make sense of the goofy world we are called on to live in. Especially true in a world where the inclination is to react first and [maybe] think second.

“Don’t hold an inquest on even two hours ago. – Jonathan Hanaghan

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

24 December

Ok, so you’re really annoyed by something. Now, consider the big picture. Think back to the things that really bothered you when you were, say, 15 years old. Or 5. Do they still bother you? A few, maybe; the vast majority, no, right? Chances are, whatever’s bothering you right now won’t amount to a row of pins in 20 years, so why invest this current source of annoyance with all that emotional capital in the meantime?

“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.” – John F. Kennedy

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

25 December

I find the following image profoundly comforting: a baby lying in a manger, on his back, vulnerable as an upturned turtle - yet tranquil for all that. This particular baby, born in a stable, will end up dying on a cross and in between, if Scripture is to be believed, as an itinerant hand-to-mouth preacher will have not whereon to lay his head. Translation: 

Poverty of the most profound sort seems to have been integral to everything about the person this child became. In a sense this kind of wall-to-wall poverty was unremarkable – it was the lot of billions more before Him, billions more after Him. More remarkable was the fact that such abiding poverty doesn’t seem to have been something He was stuck with. Instead it seems He actively and willingly embraced it as a kind of liberation from materialism, the kind of materialism you and I find utterly seductive at our every turn. It seems the impact He had on this world was somehow directly related to the immense power inherent in that embracing of poverty.

This poverty bridges the gap between Him and all of us enmeshed, as we are, in a plethora of poverties as distinctive to each of us as is our retina scan. And finally, maybe you and I can become strong in our weakness[es] as He Himself apparently was.

As I say, vulnerable as an upturned turtle - yet tranquil for all that.

“Music, of all the arts, stands in a special region, unlit by any star but its own, and utterly without meaning ... except its own.” - Leonard Bernstein

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

24 December

Christmas is, outwardly at least, a season of happiness and warmth, of joy and abundance, of Jingle Bells and Silent Nights. But not very far below the surface lurks a distinct, abiding sense of malaise. Always we’re consumed by … a something. We may not be able to identify it effectively, but it’s there for sure, as evidenced by the ever-tapping toe, the incessant drumming fingers. It’s as if receiving all the gifts in the world, destined as they are to sink below the surface of some bottomless abyss, would never even register. There is something in all of us of the alcoholic for whom a whisper of a wine cork will always be too much, for whom 20 cases of Jack Daniels will never be enough. 

Nature isn’t like that. 

Seen small, take your dog for a walk and he’ll happily show you: there are too many fire hydrants that need meticulous sniffing, too many bushes that need minute irrigating. 

Seen large, stars are content to just be there, as the poet says, singing their music of the spheres. 

By contrast you and I are sure to be tempted to stomp our feet at the microwave and blurt out, “Hurry up – I haven’t got all minute!” The trouble is, when we do that we will, of necessity, forget that tranquility and delight are as much our heritage as it is of your dog, or my stars.

Peace, my friend!

“Ultimately magic finds you, if you let it.” - Tony Wheeler

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

December 25

“To ease another's heartache is to forget one's own.” - Abraham Lincoln

“The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.” - Anais Nin

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

December 24

“The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.” - Abraham Lincoln

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

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

23 December

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?

“I have a new philosophy. I’m only going to dread one day at a time.” – Charles Schultz

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

23 December

I think the gifts you and I have in abundance from God we’re meant to acknowledge with thorough, innocent, defenseless gratitude, just like a child. We’re to round off the gratitude by working toward the increase of all things good, and beautiful, and true within our orbit. Come to think of it, I think we’re also meant to increase the sweep of that orbit.

“Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.” - Winston Churchill

 “May our children and our children's children to a thousand generations, continue to enjoy the benefits conferred upon us by a united country, and have cause yet to rejoice under those glorious institutions bequeathed us by Washington and his compeers.” - Abraham Lincoln

“When the heart is full the lips are silent.” - Anonymous

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

22 December

“You are today exactly where you were in your imagination yesterday. And you can control where you are in your imagination today, and every day, which means you can be exactly where you want to be tomorrow. The secret is persistence. It's that simple.” - Arnold Kunst

“There’s so much plastic in this culture that vinyl leopard skin is becoming an endangered synthetic.” – Lily Tomlin

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

22 December

We’re constantly surrounded by plastic copies of the real thing, and if we’re not careful we’ll end up thinking each one IS the real thing – if it glitters it MUST be gold. Unfortunately if and when the real thing actually does appear, we’ll be so dim that we won’t even notice it.

“As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.” - Socrates

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

December 22

“Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.” - Abraham Lincoln

“I don’t tell my teenage son, ‘That’s wrong!’ I ask, ‘Is that right?’” – Jonty Hanaghan

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

21 December

“Teenagers have lots to say and little tolerance for listening. Your job as a parent is to listen patiently and sooner or later [ok, maybe a long, loooong time later] when they’ve said everything they need to say, they’ll be open to what you have to say. They’ll learn tolerance, patience and self-discipline because you modeled it for them. They’ll also learn to be good listeners - from the same source.” – Arnold Kunst

“Love begins with forgiveness; everything before forgiveness is jumped up manners.” – Arnold Kunst

21 December

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

We could do with following Abraham Lincoln’s example. Democracy is threatened in our day by our abiding addiction to rancor, an addiction every bit as corrosive in our day as the threat [the Civil War] posed by an attempt at dissolution by a vastly determined foe in Lincoln's day. Let us give thanks in our day, as Lincoln did in his, for this abiding idea - "I want every man to have a chance!" And let us give thanks in our day, as Lincoln in his, to those in our circle who do the grunt work to make that ideal a reality. And finally, let us in our day, as Lincoln in his, give practical expression to the astounding conviction he expressed when he won the Presidency in 1860: "In all our rejoicing let us neither express, nor cherish, any harsh feeling towards any citizen who, by his vote, has differed with us. 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 feelings."

“Friends are like angels - they lift us up when we forget how to fly.” - Anonymous

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

December 21

Whenever Lincoln particularly as a young man, attended social functions he was extremely ill at ease around coquettish young women. He did not understand them, felt stupid in their presence, was sure they all thought him ugly. Consequently he either acted the clown or sat with his hands hidden under his knees. Except for his friend Ann Rutledge, Lincoln's closest female relationships as a young man thus far had been with married women who tended to mother him.

“Amazing things happen when women help other women.” – Anonymous

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

20 December

“You can lose at poker with a royal flush; you can win at poker with a pair of two’s. It’s not the hand you’re dealt, but how you play it.’ – Arnold Kunst

“Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.” - Aristophanes

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

20 December

One reason we can’t seem to think our way through to a solution to a given problem is that we’re always surrounded by noise, agitation – our spirits are plagued by what the Eastern mystics call “monkey chatter.” If it’s not a TV or a radio blaring, it’s a tapping toe that just won’t quit, or a nose buried in a cell phone - drumming fingers will inevitably drown out what the poet called “the still, small voice of God.”

“No emotion, any more than a wave, can long retain its own individual form.” - Henry Ward Beecher

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

On December 20, 1860 the Electoral College met formally to elect Abraham Lincoln President of the United States. On that very same day a special convention was convened in South Carolina to consider and then approve the following Ordinance of Secession: “That the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved.” This bold move – one state out, with maybe more to follow [but no guarantee!], and 33 states in – passed by a vote of 169 to 0. Translation: take no prisoners!

“The greatest wealth is a poverty of desires.” - Seneca

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

19 December

“Make the world better.” - Lucy Stone

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition; they somehow know what you truly want to become.” – Steve Jobs

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

18 December

You’re a genius. 

Need proof? Think of the last time you needed to ask A Very Important Question of that Very Important Person. You saw him/her coming, but guessed [accurately] that the context [ambient temperature, your respiration rate, his/her body language, etc.] screamed “NO!” – and you went ahead and asked that damned question anyway. 

Get it?

“Be the experienced quarterback in the pocket as the play yields another 26 yards.” – Arnold Kunst

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

19 December

If Heaven were some plastic, pretend thing, it wouldn’t take any more trouble to achieve it than, say, picking up the morning paper. But if it’s anything like it’s supposed to be, I think we’d better get ready to do battle. It’s a prize eminently worth having, but only when we’ve successfully stormed the battlements. In fact, maybe, as part of the plan, we’ve got to take hell to earn Heaven.

“To be old and wise you first have to be young and stupid.” – Anonymous

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

18 December

We’re all put here to graduate with honors from the College Of Hard Knocks, the only real school worth talking about. And it’s a real stickler for form - if you don't take all the courses and pass all the exams you're just not going to graduate. Adam and Eve did not sit around all day long sipping cool drinks, letting ripe fruit drop into their laps. Paradise - for them, for you, for me - is making the most of one's resources, the best of one's opportunities.

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. Because it does.” - Anonymous

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

December 19

“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

“Make sure your general attitude toward all that life has to offer is, “bring it on!”’ – to ALL of it.” - Arnold Kunst

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

December 18

“I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back.” - Abraham Lincoln

“I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.” – Abraham Lincoln

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

17 December

You’ve got a personal Ogre; he’s looking over your shoulder and says, on a regular basis, ‘You wet your pants in kindergarten, and don’t you ever forget it.’ Trust me on this: you don’t DESERVE to succeed unless you take reasonable precautions against that ogre’s incessant intrusions. [A suggestion: I think mastery of that ogre’s power is guaranteed once you figure out how to invite him in for a cup of coffee.]

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

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

16 December

“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

“For this is the mark of a wise and upright man, not to rail against the gods in misfortune.” - Aeschylus

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

17 December

You don't need anyone to prove to you that life isn't fair. Each of us is a combat veteran that way, even pre-speech kids. And the only reaction, from the depths of our psyche, seems to be little more than a groan. Part of the Good News of the Bible is that the Spirit of God can make a prayer out of that groan - if we but consent. But that consent may just require of us the courage to push out into the deep because staying where we're comfortable is a fool's paradise. Maybe when there’s no other choice, when we’ve got nothing, when we’re utterly smashed – maybe then we ought to go with the groan prayer.

“Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never got.” – Robert Brault

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

16 December

I think forgiving - the jettisoning of long-prized garbage - is like pulling weeds: it isn't something you do, and then it's done. It's something you do, and then do, and then do yet again. And don't forget the sailor who confessed to the priest that he literally had a girl in every port. When the priest asked if he was sorry, the sailor, embarrassed, admitted truthfully that he wasn't but wanted to be, so the priest [wisely] told him, "Tell God you're as sorry as you can be, and then just assume God will understand!"

“When in doubt, tell the truth.” - Anonymous

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

December 17

“I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Play the game for more than you can afford to lose … only then will you learn the game.” - Winston Churchill

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

December 16

“There is more involved in this contest [the American Civil War] than is realized by everyone. There is involved in this struggle the question whether your children and my children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed.” - Abraham Lincoln

“This morning, with her, having coffee.” – Johnny Cash, when asked for his description of paradise.

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

15 December

Success in any human endeavor seems to be measured with finely tuned accuracy to a rather easily stated law: what you think, that you get. Sometimes, it is true, there are temporary aberrations in the ebb and flow of life. Sometimes the success is greater or lesser than the thinking, but sooner or later they must parallel, for life is one. Whether the yardstick is emblazoned for all to see, as in a highly visible bank balance, or lost in the labyrinth of marital inter-flowings, the outcome is to the attitude as effect is to cause. Consequently your thinking and mine is meant to be balanced and full. I want for me and those around me that all good cups run over with all good things. And we will marvel at the beauty, balance, purpose, and abundance of our God. We will, gradually, come to marvel that Paradise – surprise! surprise! - is Here And Now. The conscious and the subconscious are meshing together harmoniously, like the music of the spheres. 

We are awake to the dream.

“Throughout history great leaders have known the power of humor.” – Allen Klein

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

15 December

We need to laugh it off when we get angry. After all, humor is there to be found in the anger. Like all the wealth of life, humor is hidden, even in the anger, but it’s there. We can’t be too unimaginative to find it, too dim even to look for it – the world we’re called to influence can’t afford that “luxury.”

“Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise.” - Woodrow Wilson

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

December 15

“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.” - Abraham Lincoln

“We have all known the long loneliness, and we have found that the answer is community.” – Dorothy Day

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

14 December

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

“When you are laboring for others let it be with the same zeal as if it were for yourself.” – Confucius

14 December

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

“...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

- Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

“If the thing needs to happen but isn't happening, make it happen. If you don't, get out of the way for the person who will.” - Anonymous

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

December 14

“Property is the fruit of labor. Property is desirable, is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.” - Abraham Lincoln

“This is, perhaps, the greatest challenge of our time: to love in the absence of any immediate rewards for our love.” - Anonymous

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

13 December

Stephen Covey tells the story of his daughter who, while working with Rumanian orphans, had a little girl vomit all over her - and then give her a wde-open cuddle. Would you or I take a cuddle on those terms?

“You have to grow from the inside out. There is no other teacher but your own soul.” – Swami Vivekananda

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

12 December

Loving your kids equally sounds great on paper, but it just doesn’t pan out that way in fact. Otherwise, you’d have to wait for all of them to need a new pair of shoes before you provide for the one who needs a new pair now.