“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” - Frederick Douglass

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

30 March  

“Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.” - George Washington

“My heart is perfect because you’re inside.” – Hallmark Card

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

30 March 

Imagine this: you’re a high school senior. You just finished class in your favorite subject. It makes no difference what that subject is: biology, woodwork, you name it. But that subject is what you have pursued as a career ever since. In fact, your contentment in that career is a major reason you’re content with life in general. Actually, all that is true because a few minutes earlier in this particular class, just as the bell rang, you said something of preternatural brilliance, something that represented a quantum leap of creativity, something so earth-shaking that the earth itself STOPPED its God-ordained rotation. You were dimly aware that the other kids, packing up to go to their next class, were casting furtive glances at you as if you had just walked on water and had only just now landed back on solid ground. Then you saw your teacher seemingly floating in s-l-o-w m-o-t-i-o-n toward you. He stopped right in front of you, then, taking both your shoulders in his hands looked you straight in the eye, and said, “That was simply brilliant. You’re really good at this, aren’t you?” And with all the pristine innocence, all the blossoming shyness of which the teen years are abundantly endowed, you looked back and said, a little awkwardly, “REALLY?!?”  

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

March 30 

“I appeal to you again to constantly bear in mind that with you - not with politicians, not with Presidents, not with office-seekers but with you - is the question ‘Shall the Union and shall the liberties of this country be preserved to the latest generation?’”- Abraham Lincoln 

“Spectacular achievement is always preceded by less spectacular preparation.” – Arnold Kunst

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

29 March 

“The day has to come when it’s not a surprise that a woman has a powerful position.” - Condoleeza Rice

“Work is much more fun than fun.” - Noel Coward

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

28 March 

“What one has to do usually can be done.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“You become rich when youenrich others.” - Arnold Kunst

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

27March 

“A parking lot attendant who’s a guy makes a lot more money than a child-care attendant who’s a woman.” – Gloria Steinem

“Can you withstand the fearsome assault of a casually-raised eyebrow?” – Arnold Kunst

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

29 March 

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I … I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” - Robert Frost

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

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

28 March 

Real power comes from harnessing the tremendous force of both the subconscious and the conscious mind. We’re meant to learn how they work together since their harmonious meshing together guarantees all the fabulous abundance our Father-God intends for us and for ours.

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.” – Maya Angelou

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

27 March 

When you’re really angry and want to punch someone’s lights out, keep your cool. Arguably it’d be better to siphon off some of that explosive energy with something as simple as exercise. Trust me: the object of your anger always looks different after a 5-mile jog. Expel the rage safely with the sweat – that way nobody gets hurt. As they say, “rip the guts out of a problem - not out of a person.”

“Primates often have trouble imagining a universe not run by an angry alpha male.” - Anonymous

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

March 29 

Reconciliation had a long way to go in the days following Lee’s surrender. Edmund Ruffin, credited with firing the first shot at Sumter four years earlier, reacted to the news of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox by leaving a farewell note decrying “the perfidious, malignant and vile Yankee race” - then putting a bullet through his head. Not to be outdone, as it were, the famous Northern preacher Henry Ward Beecher, vitriolic as ever, foresaw eternal agony for the secessionist aristocrats – “guiltiest and most remorseless traitors, polished, cultured, exceedingly capable and wholly unprincipled…Caught up in black clouds full of voices of vengeance and lurid with punishment, [they] shall be whirled aloft and plunged downward forever and forever in endless retribution.”

“Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.” - William Shakespeare

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

March 28 

The terms of surrender Grant presented to Lee at Appomattox were uncommonly lenient. Confederate officers, after relinquishing their arms and artillery were allowed “to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by the United States authority” on the condition they never again “take up arms” against the Union. They were also allowed to take their private horses as well as their side arms [“their horses to plow with and the guns to shoot crows with”]. This provision, Lee observed, “would have a happy effect upon my army.” As the brief meeting between the two commanders drew to a close Lee mentioned that “his army was in a very bad condition for want of food.” Grant gave orders that 100,000 rations be provided for Lee’s scarecrow army of 25,000 men.

"Let your yea be yea and your nea be nea." - The Bible

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

March 27 

Harriet Beecher Stowe one winter evening toward the end of the war asked if the president did not feel a great relief over the prospect of the war soon coming to a close. And Lincoln had answered, she said, in a sad way: “No Mrs. Stowe. I shall never live to see peace. This war is killing me.” 

“Let children walk with Nature. Let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity as taught in woods and meadows and plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed and as beautiful as life.” - John Muir

“The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom. – Associate Justice William O. Douglas

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

26 March 

“The only sin the Lord’s Prayer talks about is the sin of trespass.” – Jonathan Hanaghan

"’Being comfortable’ is overrated.” - Anonymous

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

26 March 

“If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative.” - Woody Allen

“The great thing in this world is not so much where we are but in what direction we are moving.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

March 26 

At one point during the war Lincoln was forced by his cabinet to confront the realization that many people who were thought to be Unionists were actually spies providing key information to the Confederacy. After presenting the evidence, Secretary of War Stanton asked for direction. Lincoln, who had been silent and visibly disturbed, expressed his feelings with a story about the dilemma of an old farmer who had a very large shade tree towering over his house. “It was a majestic-looking tree and apparently perfect in every part – tall, straight and of immense size - the grand old sentinel of his forest home. One morning while at work in his garden he saw a squirrel run up the tree into a hole and thought the tree might be hollow. He proceeded to examine it carefully and - much to his surprise - he found that the stately tree that he had valued for its beauty and grandeur to be the pride and protection of his little farm was hollow from top to bottom. Only a rim of sound wood remained barely sufficient to support its weight. What was he to do? If he cut it down it would do immense damage with its great length and spreading branches. If he let it remain his family was in constant danger; in a storm it might fall or the wind might blow it down and his house and children be crushed by it. What should he do? As he turned away he said sadly, ‘I wish I had never seen that squirrel.’”

“Old age is no place for sissies.” - Bette Davis

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

25 March 

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

Who does your deciding?

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

25 March 

Turning to a life of crime to pay the bills is about as stupid as relying on all those losers carping on the sidelines to smooth the way for you.

“I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.” - Patrick Henry

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

March 25 

In the run-up to Lincoln's inauguration in 1861 the country was in a state of apoplexy. At one of his stops along his route to Washington from Illinois Lincoln said, “why all this excitement - why all these complaints? As I said before, this crisis is all artificial. It has no foundation in facts. It was not argued up as the saying is and cannot therefore be argued down. Let it alone and it will go down of itself.” 

“Lord, give me steadfastness without dogmatism, love without weakness.” - Anonymous

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

24 March 

“No one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or scornful, than the man who is anxious about his virility.” - Simone de Beauvoir

“Failing to live like the winner you are is a kind of blasphemy.” - Arnold Kunst

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

23 March 

“You have the power to say this is NOT how the story is going to end.” - Anonymous

“Everything is funny as long as it’s happening to someone else.” – Will Rogers

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

24 March 

Watching your fingernails grow is not a marketable skill.

“Many argue; not many converse.” – Louisa May Alcott

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

23 March 

When your wife is talking to you about a problem she’s having, just listen and watch out for impatiently giving in to your hyperactive Fix-It gene. [Surprise, surprise: she’s got a Fix-It gene of her own!]

“Don’t ever let the urgent crowd out the important.” - Anonymous

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

March 24 

“The Emancipation Proclamation applies to Arkansas. I think it is valid in law, and will be so held by the courts. I think I shall not retract or repudiate it. Those who shall have tasted actual freedom I believe can never be slaves or quasi slaves again.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Embrace all that you most fear or find repugnant the better to realize that everything in the Universe being inseparably related is therefore holy.” - Lama Marpa

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

March 23 

“And having thus chosen our course without guile and with pure purpose let us renew our trust in God and go forward without fear and with manly hearts.” - Abraham Lincoln 

“Opportunity always lies buried in the midst of difficulty. Always.” - Arnold Kunst

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

22 March 

“In a world where carpenters get resurrected, everything is possible.” – Eleanor of Aquitaine

“There is no problem so big that it cannot be dismissed with a little self-delusion.” – Anonymous

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

22 March 

If your God isn’t stretching you beyond your comfort zones it’s because you’ve fashioned Him into your very own plastic construct; that way He’ll fit neatly into your pocket where He belongs.

“No matter what suffering you endure, God is bigger than the biggest pain.” - Anonymous

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst March 22 “If I had been allowed my way this war would have ended before this, but we find it still continues; and we must believe that God permits it for some wise purpose of his own, mysterious and unknown to us; and though with our limited understandings we may not be able to comprehend it, yet we cannot but believe, that He who made the world still governs it.” - Abraham Lincoln 

“Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it is your own.” – Michelle Obama

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

21 March 

“As the caterpillar becomes the butterfly, so also the meaningless becomes meaningful to those who strive with persistence and trust with simplicity.” – Arnold Kunst

“An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep.” – Alexander the Great

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

21 March 

Trust me: you are a majority of one. If you’re not already convinced of that, then even with an army of a million protecting you, your vulnerability will ultimately prove fatal.

“Revenge is always the weak pleasure of a little and narrow mind.” - Juvenal

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

March 21 

Following Lincoln’s assassination, a War Department circular in 1865 virtually guaranteed the capture of Davis. “One hundred thousand dollars reward in Gold will be paid to any person or persons who will apprehend and deliver Jefferson Davis to any of the military authorities of the United States. Several millions of specie reported to be with him will become the property of the captors.”

“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” – John Quincy Adams

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

20 March 

“I am not a has-been. I am a will-be.” - Lauren Bacall

“Wisdom begins in wonder.” - Socrates

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

19 March 

“Women think with their whole bodies and they see things as a whole more than men do.” – Dorothy Day

“If you wish to be out front, act as if you were behind.” – Lao Tzu

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

20 March 

The only thing the loser takes with him when he dies is what he gave away before he died. The only thing the winner takes with him when he dies is what he gave away before he died.

“I wish heaven had visiting hours.” - Anonymous

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

19 March 

When your loved one dies don’t be afraid to throw dirt on the grave. It’s neither cruel nor heartless; rather, it’s an integral part of a bigger process called closure. Do it right and you’ll grieve your way clear through to the other side where Life, yet again, beckons.

“You don't develop good teeth by eating mush.” - Earl Black

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

March 20 

“I am not bound to win but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right and stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.” - Abraham Lincoln

"Slavery survives because slavery pays." - Arnold Kunst

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

March 19 

“I am naturally antislavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel.” - Abraham Lincoln 

“We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal - that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights - that among these are the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” - Thomas Jefferson

“The only success that comes after a little opposition is a little success.” – Arnold Kunst

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

18 March 

“If women want any rights more than theys got, why don’t they just take them, and not be talking about it?” – Sojourner Truth

“Worrying doesn’t take away tomorrow’s troubles, it takes away today’s peace.” – Anonymous

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

18 March 

Surely the sweep of the positive extends from the timeless, spaceless breadth of the metaphysical to the humble, pointed immediacy of the fingertips.

“The taste of defeat has a richness of experience all its own.” - Bill Bradley

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

March 18 

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

“You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind.” – Anonymous

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

17 March 

“There are practical little things in housekeeping which no man really understands.” - Eleanor Roosevelt 

“The mountains are calling, and I must go.” – John Muir

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

17 March 

My vision of God [if I sufficiently access a tranquility that is native to me] has all the certitude of a paralyzed ex-skier whose once vibrant muscles somehow still send messages to the brain that bespeak coordination, balance, exhilaration, easy flow, open-ended vitality. Soon the dream will be real; the vision tangible; "then" will be NOW!

“Man does not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” - Chief Seattle

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

March 17 

“I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle [The Revolutionary War] was made, and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that great struggle.” - Abraham Lincoln 

“I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think.” – Socrates

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

16 March 

“We all contain Judas, and we had better recognize it.” – Jonathan Hanaghan

“May you continue to be the proverbial round peg in all the proverbial square holes of life.” – Anonymous

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

16 March 

I remember like it was yesterday a European flight over 30 years ago on which I was served a chicken dinner. What was so memorable was the fact that the trapezoidal space on the plastic plate had a piece of chicken of uncannily accurate trapezoidal measurements. It was as if that chicken, the proud finished product of genetic engineering, had been tailor-made for this plastic plate, its ultimate residence. Like, it was an EXACT fit. 

Scarey, isn’t it?

“No dream is worth striving for unless it is big enough for the God of the universe to romp about in.” - Arnold Kunst

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

March 16 

[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 

“Life is built on the twin pillars of agony and ecstasy.” - Arnold Kunst

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

15 March 

“A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.” – Gloria Steinem

“Inhale courage, exhale fear.” - Anonymous

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

15 March 

“Success is the child of boldness.” - Anonymous

“Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” - Malcolm S. Forbes

 From“Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

March15 

Lincoln“was a most teachable man, and asked questions with a childlike simplicity which would have been too much for the false pride of many a man far less well informed. His fund of knowledge was, as he himself declared, very largely made up of information obtained in conversation.” If Lincoln's knowledge was “not so well arranged and digested as if it had been the accumulation of careful and exact research, it included a vast amount of information hardly to be found in books.” -William O. Stoddard, presidential secretary 

“Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.” - Confucius

 From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst 

14 March 

“The woman who does not require validation from anyone is the most feared individual on the planet.” - Anonymous

“Unless you are tender to the utmost end of life you can’t help anyone.” – Jonathan Hanaghan

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

14 March 

One sure-fire strategy to turn a cradle Catholic into an ex-Catholic: a fear-filled Catholic seeking to voice a concern that might inadvertently impinge on the delicate sense of personal integrity of the priest: “Father, what about X-Y-Z?” Priest: “I have two degrees in theology; how many do you have?” 

Sure-fire.