“Habit rules the unreflecting herd.” - William Wordsworth

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

31 July

“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.” - Susan B. Anthony

“5:00 AM: the hour when legends are either waking up or going to bed.” - Anonymous

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

31 July

If timeless, spaceless realities [beauty, truth, goodness, simplicity, play, etc] don’t stretch you beyond your comfort zones, it’s because you’re focused on the tawdry. You’ve sold your very soul for a pittance.

“Don't ever let anyone belittle your ambitions.” - Mark Twain

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 31

“I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Has any man attained to inner harmony by pondering the experience of others? Not since the world began! He must pass through the fire.” - Norman Douglas

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

30 July

“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” - Anonymous

“The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.” – Vince Lombardi

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

30 July

You’re blessed indeed if your God stretches you beyond your comfort zones. [Or would you prefer the safety of scaling ten-foot mountains?]

“Where do I sign?” - Anonymous

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 30

“When the people rise in masses in behalf of the Union and the liberties of their country, truly may it be said, ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against them.’”- Abraham Lincoln

“Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.” - Demosthenes

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

29 July

“Children see magic because they look for it.” Christopher Moore

“Rise to the level of the child.” - Dr. Shinichi Suzuki

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

29 July

Arnold Kunst and the Piano, Part One

When I was 6 or 7 I saw a little-known Disney movie called “Johnny Appleseed.” One of the movie’s songs was “The Lord is Good to Me.” When I came home I picked the tune out on the [unused] piano, then told my Mommy and my Daddy that I wanted to take piano lessons.

I did, for three years. At the end of my 4^th grade I even made it to Prince Charming during the end-of-year Cinderella-themed recital. But family financial troubles meant we couldn’t afford the cost [$100 for a school year] so I quit that year.

I took it up again when I was in high school, and minored in music in college.

I taught my very first piano lesson at 23 in the summer of 1964 to a 5-year-old girl living next door to us. She had heard me play, and told her mother she wanted me to teach her piano. When her mother asked me I said, “Sounds fun, but I’ve never taught piano before.” The mother, with great wisdom, said in reply, “All you have to do is get a book that’s at her level, and then just stay a few pages ahead of her. After all, she’s only five, right?”

Well, I did take her on. Of course, the kid’s mother was dead right. Eventually I became qualified, would you believe, with the Royal School of Music in London; I taught piano for the next 20 years. It was a fun 20 years, believe me. And I never looked back!

“I’d be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.” - Terry Pratchett

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 29

“As a general rule I abstain from reading reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer.” - Abraham Lincoln

“If I had my life to live over, I would do it all again, but this time I would be nastier.” – Jeanette Rankin [first women elected to U. S. Congress]

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

28 July

“The minute you start caring about what other people think is the minute you stop being yourself.” – Meryl Streep

“Behold, this dreamer cometh.” – The Bible

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

28 July

The only vision that counts comes from the light we radiate toward one another. So don't put yours under a bushel – the rest of us can’t afford it!

“The riddles of God are far more interesting than the solutions of man.” - G. K. Chesterton

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 28

“It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged.” - Abraham Lincoln

“And though she be but little she is fierce.” – William Shakespeare

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

27 July

“Parliaments have stopped laughing at woman suffrage, and politicians have begun to dodge! It is the inevitable premonition of coming victory.” – Carrie Chapman Catt

“If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough.” – Muhammad Ali

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

27 July

At age 91 Winston Churchill could well have looked back on a life replete with unmitigated failure. Defeated at the polls at the very end of a world war he was so instrumental in winning, he returned to the back benches as head of the Opposition, and once again he was a lone voice crying out in the wilderness, this time decrying the threat of Stalin's voracious, unprincipled Soviet Union in the 1950’s as he had against the threat of Hitler’s voracious, unprincipled Nazi Germany in the 1930’s.

An unabashed imperialist, he sat impotently by as the British Empire withered into that toothless PR construct known as The British Commonwealth - Britain as a world power was finished. He lived the vast majority of his life in the wilderness as a member of the opposition and, if he weren’t careful would have gone to his grave thinking his life a failure.

The rest of us knew, though, that there were a few months during those 91 years, from the spring of 1940 on, when he stood alone on the bulwarks of civilization itself against the bottomlessly evil and immensely powerful threat of Nazism.

Hey, he wasn’t a failure after all!

The moral of the story: in 1940 he was THE right man for the job, and all of us, and all of our posterity, owe this man a debt of gratitude of incalculable proportions.

“We teach people how to remember, not how to grow.” - Oscar Wilde

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 27

“Kings have always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally if not always that the good of the people was the object.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Stop trying to calm the storm. Calm yourself; the storm will pass.” – Buddha

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

26 July

“Whenever I was upset by something in the papers, Jack always told me to be more tolerant, like a horse flicking away flies in the summer.” – Jackie Kennedy

“Patience is the ability to count down before you blast off.” – Anonymous

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

26 July

“Be patient. Life comes at you at its own pace, and doesn’t take kindly to your pushing the water uphill any more than it does to your pushing it downhill.” – Arnold Kunst

“Know thyself.” - Socrates

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 26

“History is not history unless it is the truth.” - Abraham Lincoln

“If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind, whom shall we serve?” – Abigail Adams

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

25 July

“Most of men’s problems on this planet have been met and solved either partially or as a whole by experiment based on common sense and carried out with courage.” - Frances Perkins

“Magnificence is our destiny.” - Anonymous

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

25 July

Life can be so tenuous. Without any trouble at all you and I are reduced to huddling together, exposed on the tip of the planet, hoping against hope that we’ll just survive. That, combined with our own innate, bottomless casual furies, more than fuels our fears which in turn richly pollute all our deepest urges.

How pitiable, how magnificent, is man!

“Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 25

“The true rule for the military is to seize such property as is needed for military uses and reasons, and let the rest alone.” - Abraham Lincoln

“The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.” - Anonymous

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

24 July

“Getting older is an adventure, not a problem.” – Betty Friedan

“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” – Derek Bok

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

24 July

One of the sad consequences of having a poor education is having a brain that sputters along on one or two cylinders. That means that even if a guy arrives at a course of action that’s a good 99% correct, he’ll still blow it.

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” - T. S. Elliot

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 24

“That some achieve great success is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.” - Abraham Lincoln

“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.” – Albert Einstein

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

23 July

“Being a housewife and a mother is the biggest job in the world, but if it doesn’t interest you, don’t do it – I would have made a terrible mother.” – Katherine Hepburn

“Every time you stand up for an ideal, you send forth a tiny ripple of hope.” – Bobby Kennedy

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

23 July

If not here, where?

If not me, who?

If not now, when?

“Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible.” - Anonymous

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 23

“I am charged with making too many mistakes on the side of mercy.” - Abraham Lincoln

“The first way for a young man to set himself on the road toward glorious reputation is to win renown.” - Cicero

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

22 July

“A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude.” – Emily Dickinson

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

21 July

“Marrying for love may be a bit risky, but it is so honest that God can’t help but smile on it.” - Anonymous

“Thank more, complain less.” – Anonymous

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

22 July

“Everything that is has at its disposal more than enough of everything it needs to reach its full potential, and then some. Such is the perceptible echo of an abundantly generous, loving God.” - Arnold Kunst

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” - Anonymous

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

21 July

Smile at everyone you meet – like yourself, whoever they are they could do with another smile today.

“I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.” - George Washington

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 22

Lincoln lost his first campaign for elected office – the Illinois state legislature - in 1832. But there was one consolation: the 23-year-old Lincoln polled 277 out of the 300 votes cast in his little village. The grass-roots exit-poll lesson was crystal clear: to know Lincoln was to trust Lincoln.

“If you never quit, you’ll never fail.” – Bobby Kennedy

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

20 July

“Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don’t do that by sitting around.” – Katherine Hepburn

“Friendship isn't a big thing, it's a million little things.” - Anonymous

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

20 July

You’ll know the kind of person the loser is when you meet the people he surrounds himself with.

You’ll know the kind of person the winner is when you meet the people he surrounds himself with.

“Sell your cleverness and purchase bewilderment.” - Viktor Frankl

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 20

“I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.” - Abraham Lincoln

“I don’t know who my grandfather was. I am much more concerned to discover what his grandson will be.” - Abraham Lincoln

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

19 July

“Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don't fight them. Just find a different way to stand.” - Oprah Winfrey

“Necessity requires no decision.” - Anonymous

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

19 July

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

19 July

When I was in college I had a summer job working for a painting contractor. One summer he submitted a bid for painting the exterior of a huge condominium complex. It was called Whispering Pines and they were over the moon when they found out they had won this job. The company was led by three brothers who had, between them, no less than 15 kids - lots of mouths to feed. Bob - he was the one who had taken and passed the contractor's exam and so, nominally, was the boss - told me that they liked to nail down a super- big contract every year, one that would stretch out for six months and more like this one, and then they could build the rest of the year around that one contract.

There was one little problem, though, one that should rightly give anyone cause for concern: they learned eventually that their winning bid was lower - considerably lower - than the next lowest bid. In fact, $40,000 lower. When they examined their bid they found the problem: John, the estimator, somehow had forgotten to include a figure for the windows. The good news was, they had the gigantic job they were going to build an entire year around, just like they wanted. The bad news was, they went into this six-month-plus commitment at a considerable disadvantage: they were starting out in a $40,000 hole, and nothing they could possibly do would ever dig themselves out of it.

The one who really stood out in this whole story was Bud, the third brother - the best painter I ever met in all those high school and college summers - who was slated to be the job foreman. He had to get up every day, drag himself off to a job he KNEW was losing $40,000, and that, no matter what he did - and he was a wizard not only with a spray gun but also as a leader of men - the thing was a dog. I, like all the other 16 guys on that crew, was happy enough to be off to a job that would last my entire summer and leave my bank account sufficiently swollen that I'd be able to limp my way through to the following summer when these three brothers would work their magic once again.

For me Whispering Pines was nothing more than a cash cow. It was something very different for Bud, the one who - largely because of how he carried himself during those six grueling months - became my lifetime hero that summer. He taught me a valuable lesson: maturity isn't always pretty, and it largely happens out of sight.

“Wisdom comes by disillusionment.” - George Santayana

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 19

What came to be called First Bull Run took place about 18 miles from Washington on July 19, a balmy Sunday in 1861, and, hard though it may be for us at this vantage to imagine, all of Washington took picnic baskets with them in their carriages to watch the Rebels get whipped. [The assumption, North and South, was that this was going to be a quick and easy war, each side asserting that the other was no match for them!] Unfortunately, after what looked like a quick Northern victory, it was the Yankees who got whipped. At the end of the day the roads back to Washington were clogged with an odd but profoundly sobering assortment of panicky congressmen, women in their summer finery, members of the diplomatic corps and soldiers flinging their equipment to the four winds – all in headlong flight from what looked very much like abject defeat. Confident Northern boasts were destined to disappear like snow in spring. A world of tranquil certitudes was over, perhaps never to return.

“A happy family is but an earlier heaven.” - George Bernard Shaw

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

18 July

“Children are apt to live up to what you believe of them.” - Lady Bird Johnson

“Do not go gentle into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light.” – Dylan Thomas

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

18 July

The last lesson I must learn in life is how to dispose of self-recrimination. My guess is, the need will especially arise just before death because I’ll have a whole lifetime’s worth of screw-ups on the scorecard. Put it this way: God longs with a yearning that transcends space and time that I accept His prodigal forgiveness. And that can’t happen unless and until I offer/accept my own forgiveness. The only ones who complete the trip to heaven successfully are the ones who travel light. And that means jettisoning the garbage of self-recrimination that heaven obviously finds utterly intolerable.

"Don't act green." - Anonymous

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 18

The First major battle of the Civil War took place at the Virginia rail junction of Manassas near a stream called Bull Run a few miles outside of Washington D. C. It was fought against the advice of Lincoln’s generals who said their troops were not ready; Lincoln overruled them, saying, “they are green, it is true, but so are the enemy. They are all green alike.”

 

“It sometimes becomes necessary to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. True, you’re only walking so not making good time; also, there's no view from the valley floor and therefore little in the way of perspective; and of course the death part is enough to terrify anybody. But keep a cool head - after all, the valley of the shadow of death isn't the valley of death, is it?” - Arnold Kunst

“If you can’t do anything about it, then let it go. Don’t be a prisoner to things you can’t change.” – Buddha

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

17 July

“I’ve always felt that a person’s intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.” – Abigail Adams

“Happy trails to you.” – Roy Rogers

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

17 July

Little Johnny Stories IX

This time I’m the Little Johnny

One day when I was maybe 6 or 7, in the late 40’s, my big sister and I went to what was called at the time a Saturday matinee and it centered around a Roy Rogers movie.

Roy Rogers, “King of the Cowboys,” was my all-time greatest hero. [He was really smart: he'd figure out that the bank robbers were cattle rustlers who always needed a shave, but were secretly working for the REAL bad guy: the bank manager in the three-piece suit!]

Anyway, this one particular Saturday when I got home I told my mommy wanted to go to San Francisco tomorrow. Although we only lived about 20 miles from San Francisco this was a fairly unusual pronouncement for my mother to hear. When she asked me why, I told her Roy Rogers said in the movie he was going to San Francisco tomorrow, and I wanted to see him.

Simple!

"Be clear." - Anonymous

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 17

“You think slavery is right and should be extended while we think slavery is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial difference between us.” - Abraham Lincoln

 

“When you are in the process of negotiating - job interview, buying a car, ordering a meal, choosing a life's mate – be clear about your priorities and prepared to say, not just imply, ‘no’ and than, if necessary, to walk away from what isn't a fit.” - Arnold Kunst

“Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.” – Judy Garland

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

16 July

“Get comfortable with saying, ‘I need to think this through rather than say/do something hurtful, or stupid. Let’s hold off talking about this until we get home from work tonight, ok?’ It’s called emotional self-discipline.” - Anonymous

“Are you buried somewhere inside there, behind/beyond your mask?” Anonymous

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

16 July

Be careful not to go easy on yourself. If all you’ve done is scale a ten-foot mountain, don’t get all puffed up like a bullfrog on a lily pad because you think you’ve really accomplished something!

“Make sure your attitude is always, ‘I can handle it.’ Whatever ‘it’ is.” - Anonymous

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 16

“Before Lincoln's 1860 election the Buchanan administration had done virtually nothing to put down what looked like an incipient rebellion. Buchanan himself, although he viewed secession as flagrantly unconstitutional, could not - or would not - see any way to counter the hemorrhaging of states seceding from the Union [in the ten weeks leading up to Lincoln's inauguration seven states had seceded from the then total of 34]. The lame duck Congress had done little better. To be sure, the House had introduced a bill that would have authorized the president to call out state militias, but the Senate – with the aid of senators from states about to secede - had actually passed a resolution requesting a lowering of the War Department's budget. When Lincoln took the oath he found that he had lost control to those seven states of all federal agencies; they had also seized every federal fortification except Forts Pickens and Sumter. In addition, the Mississippi River was obstructed or in Southern hands. Oh, and Washington, sandwiched between the southern-leaning states of Maryland and Virginia, was virtually defenseless...” - Arnold Kunst

“Fear does not prevent death. It prevents life.” – Buddha

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

15 July

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“No one has ever become poor by giving.” - Anne Frank

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

15 July

“Make your apology specific, and sincere, then get on with life – leave the dead to bury the dead. Apologies are great inventions because they clear the emotional decks for action. Otherwise when the action comes, you’re tripping over all those coils of rope that should have been stowed away when you had the chance.” – Arnold Kunst

“It’s a rare person indeed who wants to hear what he doesn’t want to hear.” - Anonymous

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 15

“The country in the years during the run-up to the Civil War seemed to have completely lost all capacity to listen. Perhaps the most striking example occurred in 1856 when Senator Charles Sumner delivered a rousing anti-slavery speech in the US Senate that played well among his abolitionist supporters in his home state of Massachusetts. Unfortunately that speech infuriated the South – and induced a relative of the Southerner whose honor Sumner had besmirched to enter an almost empty senate chamber and attack Sumner as he sat at his desk, beating him with his walking stick with sufficient vehemence that Sumner took years of recuperating before he could return to his senatorial duties. And while Sumner was recuperating, his assailant received any number of replacement walking sticks from well-wishing fellow Southerners – to be used again in case any other Yankee hypocrite stepped out of line!” - Arnold Kunst