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

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

31 January

“Many great ideas have been lost because the people who had them could not stand being laughed at.” – Anonymous

“’No' encumbers; 'yes' engenders." - Arnold Kunst

31 January

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

If I want to drive to San Francisco I don't postpone departure until all the lights are green. I take some reasonable precautions, then I set out to achieve the thing I've decided on.

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

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 31

Lincoln was roundly criticized for an abysmal lack of leadership because he appeared to dither. The fact was he refused to move until he had gathered and evaluated all the relevant facts. His critics, by contrast, always had all the relevant facts; they always knew what to do and how to do it, and never seemed burdened with that pesky need to gather and sift.

“Prudence in action avails more than wisdom in conception.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

30 January

“If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.” – Maya Angelou

“Anyone can say ‘I love you,’ but not everyone can wait and prove it’s true.” – Anonymous

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

29 January

“Don’t exhaust yourself in preparing for your wedding. Otherwise when that other important person asks the ‘do-you-take’ question, you’re going to mumble, ‘What did you say?’” – Arnold Kunst

“Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrusts himself.” - Francoise de la Rouchfoucauld

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

29 January

Sometimes life demands silence. Like, something happens that you just don’t understand – maybe can’t understand. Then even listening, say, to an ethereal Beethoven string quartet that normally would transport you into a state of mystical serenity is a kind of violation, like an invigorating game of squash at a funeral service. 

Sometimes you are called to remove the sandals from your feet, for you stand on sacred ground…

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

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 30

“,,, and upon this act [The Emancipation Proclamation] sincerely believed to be an act of justice warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.” - Abraham Lincoln

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

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 29

Lincoln once told the story of the sick man in Illinois “who was told he probably hadn’t many days longer to live, and he ought to make his peace with any enemies he might have. He said the man he hated worst of all was a fellow named Brown in the next village. So Brown was sent for, and when he came the sick man began to say, in a voice as meek as Moses’s, that he wanted to die at peace with all his fellow creatures, and he hoped he and Brown could now shake hands and bury all their enmity. The scene was becoming altogether too pathetic for Brown who had to get out his handkerchief and wipe the gathering tears from his eyes. After a parting that would have softened the heart of a grindstone, Brown had about reached the room door when the sick man rose up on his elbow and called out to him: ‘But see here, Brown, if I should happen to get well, mind, the old grudge stands.’”

“Are you proud of what angers you?” - Anonymous

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

28 January

Once we know what angers the loser, we pretty much know all there is that’s important to him.

Once we know what angers the winner, we pretty much know all there is that’s important to him. 

“Crime and punishment grow out of the one stem. Punishment is a fruit that, unsuspected, ripens with the flower of the pleasure that concealed it.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 28

“Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure.” - Congressman Abraham Lincoln

“Jesus did not say: ‘I am come that ye might have haloes.’” – Jonathan Hanaghan

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

28 January

“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person,” – Mother Teresa

“Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.” - Anonymous

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

27 January

“A good husband should let his wife play truant and let her do it handsomely.” – Jonathan Hanaghan

“Generosity changes everything.” - Anonymous

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

26 January

“America is an enormous frosted cupcake in the middle of millions of starving people.” – Gloria Steinem

“Yes engenders; no encumbers.” - Arnold Kunst

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

25 January

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

“Take it easy. But take it.” – Woodie Guthrie

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

24 January

“I came out to beat everybody in sight, and that’s just what I’m going to do.” - Babe Didrikson Zaharias [WPGA golfer, 1911-1956]

“A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.” – Jack Dempsey

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

27 January

“If I do today what others won't I'll live tomorrow like others can't.” - Anonymous

“Being thick-skinned is highly overrated.” - Anonymous

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

26 January

It doesn’t take much, does it?

I remember walking my two-year-old grandson Kieran to Starbucks once. Talk about win-win! We heard the birdies sang, we saw Rocky the big white floppy dog that liked to sniff Kieran’s toes, then we got behind the Safeway store where we found a few delivery trucks, of course and seven dumpsters – but there were two garbage trucks as well! Count them: TWO! I never thought we’d see an actual garbage truck on this elongated Pooh adventure, never mind two! The first was maneuvering into position as we got close. Then the driver rolled a dumpster on the two prongs in the front of his truck, and before we knew it he pushed some buttons, lifted that dumpster, then dropped its load way up high into the top of his truck. Kieran’s eyes were out on stalks during the whole thing – it was like Christmas in July, and Santa had come with a whole bag full of toys JUST FOR HIM! 

Then the other guy did the same thing with barrels marked “inedible” from the butcher’s department, and in the process he spilled something reddish-brown and vaguely moist on the ground nearby. As Kieran bent over to pick it up, I stopped him. “Ickey-poo,” I told him - which, of course quickly became Kieran’s favorite word. 

Like I say, it doesn’t take much, does it?

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

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

25 January

LIFE IN PRISON, PART TWO

I remember a conversation I overheard during orientation before I began my teaching job at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville. It was in the reception area; two buses with newly-arrived inmates had just arrived, and two guys who got off those buses clearly knew eath other. Here’s what I heard: “Hay, Bill, I haven’t seen you since Folsom. What are you in for?” “No, Fred, it was San Quinten. Parole violation; 18 months. What about you?” “I got a new beef. 18 months too.” “Oh, ok.” 

What struck me was now casual all that sounded. Like, if you’re, say, 37 and you’ve got an 18-month hitch you’re going to spend your 38^th birthday in prison. Trust me on this: there’ll be no cake on your 38^th, no candles, no family, no loved ones, no gifts, no one telling you how glad they are that you’re on this planet. None of that. That birthday is gong to be just another tasteless day watching your fingernails grow - just like twenty bazillion other days before that day, and after. Unquestioned waste stretching out, extending far beyond the furthest frontier. And because it’s so unquestioned, the end of those 18 months isn’t going to make any appreciable difference. That is, each guy will get out inside 18 months, but each will be back inside prison before the end of a baseball season. 

Beating the odds takes more than the passage of those 18 months, trust me on that.

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

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

24 January

Little Johnny Stories II:

We only learn by making mistakes. Somewhere along the line little Johnny at 14 months bit into a strawberry. He encountered something soft, and a little seedy with a subtle sweetness that he eventually came to know as very distinctive. 

So far, so good. Then he happens on a rubber ball that’s the same color, and almost the same shape and size as a strawberry. And since he’s teething he’s got a vested interest in biting down on everything in sight, so he goes to work on this thing with the vague notion that it will taste like a strawberry because it looks like a strawberry.

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

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

“No pressure - no diamonds.” - Thomas Carlyle

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 27

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

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

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 26

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

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

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

25 January

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

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

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 24

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

“Use as the foundation of your success the bricks others throw at you.” - Anonymous

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

23 January

“I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be the inferior sex.” – Katherine Hepburn

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

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

23 January

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

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

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

Now, that sort of thing is fairly commonplace today, but it was the first time he had ever seen it. Joe said the excitement of doing this grass roots “scientific” survey was really kicking in. Before he knew it he was looking for what he called the totality of the coffee-shop experience, with the quality of the mocha the single most important, but certainly not the only, consideration! Once he got his mocha he picked up what he called an orphaned newspaper and headed toward a chair on the small patio just beyond the completely exposed west wall of the place. 

And just outside was a burgeoning sunset to die for over a beach straight out of heaven. He pretended to read the paper and dawdled over his drink while he watched a volleyball game there on the beach in front of him.  

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

The next day after Joe finished his bit of business in San Diego, he headed out toward the zoo where he found another, different, hanging-gardens-of-Babylon coffee shop. Before he placed his order Joe made mention of his own bit of research; after all it had become a big deal for him! “Can you guys top the Malibu mocha experience?” he asked.  The place was kind of quiet at the time and all three of the baristas heard what Joe said and, maybe because they were bored themselves, were paying rapt attention. 

Needless to say, they looked eager! “I’ll give you my final verdict at the end, ok?” Joe said to them.True, the order didn’t get typed into the cash register; instead, the guy actually wrote it out low-tech on a paper cup, then handed it to the gal who actually made it. “Points lost here?” thought Joe, then wisely decided, “the jury’s still out.” While he waited the girl asked, “Did you say you wanted that with low fat milk or regular?” “Low fat’s fine,” Joe said, “just hold the cream. We’re talking heart-jolting caffeine here, right? We don’t want to OD on the health thing.” 

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

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

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

After awhile the surfer dude left, and then so did Joe. But first he gave his final verdict to three coffee drink-producing grunts who hung on Joe’s every word.

The outside view in Malibu, he said, was more interesting than the inside view in San Diego [the baristas looked like someone just killed their cat]; the surfer dude partially balanced out the view thing; but the deciding factor was the mocha itself: the Malibu mocha wasn’t as dead-on as the San Diego mocha [the three lit up like Christmas trees]. So Joe left them a $5 tip. Those three workers were elated – not so much by the $5 tip but by the excitement that seemed to follow this distinctive customer. 

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

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

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 23

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

“My cup runneth over.” – The Bible

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

22 January

“Ah! When will this long weary day have end, / And lende me leave to come unto my love?” - Epithalamion

“You are NOT an accident.” - Anonymous

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

22 January

Imagine this: there’s a banquet to start soon in, say, Buckingham Palace. In attendance are the most powerful leaders of the world, all standing around drinking cocktails in a large reception area just outside the banquet room. Then someone who’s never been elected dog catcher walks to through the crowd to the microphone at the front of the room and commands everyone’s attention. They all, like sheep, step to the side, moving out of his way and they quiet down as he tells them to move toward the banquet hall because they’re ready to start. 

Why are they like sheep? Because at that moment this guy’s the only person in that whole group who’s moving with a sense of purpose.

Maybe you and I – those of us who have not been elected dog catcher either - should move with a similar sense of purpose?

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

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 22

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

“Self confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.” - Willie Davis

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

21 January

“Being a woman has only bothered me when climbing trees.” - Frances Perkins [Secretary of Labor, 1933-1945]

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

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

21 January

Little Johnny Stories III

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

The transition, of course is neither smooth nor easy. Consider the day that the whole family is there, sitting in a circle for THOSE FIRST FEW STEPS. Mommy’s holding Johnny’s little hands, and Daddy, a few feet away, says dramatically, “Ok, Johnny, come to Daddy! Come to Daddy!”

Mommy lets go, cameras are poised, everyone’s tingling with excitement. Then Johnny wobbles on his bow-legs, and… FALLS! 

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

[I think there a lesson here for you and me, right?]

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

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 21

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

“A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity.” -Ralph Nader

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

20 January

“I think white women need to wake up and say, ‘Not all women are white,’ three times in front of the mirror.” - Chmamanda Ngozi Adiche

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

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

20 January

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

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

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 20

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

“Life is a stickler for form. If you don’t take, and pass, all the courses you’re just not going to graduate.” - Arnold Kunst

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

19 January

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

“The biggest mistake a small business owner can make is to think like a small business owner.” - Anonymous

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

19 January

My son and his wife have just made the following New Year’s resolution: leave their Internet business and before this year’s out move to the Sierra foothills to open up their own snob coffee shop/dessert shop. [Among other things, my daughter-in-law does a killer tiramisu!].

But before they do anything drastic they’ve decided to get their feet wet gradually: he’ll continue with the Internet business and she'll get a job as a barista at a foothills Starbucks for six months. While there she’ll work her way up first to manager. That way she’ll learn the coffee-shop business from the bottom up, and all on Starbucks' nickel!

How’s that for a New Year’s resolution!

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

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 19

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

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

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

18 January

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

“Delusional people build castles in the air; Schizophrenics move into them and pay rent!” - Anonymous

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

18 January

LIFE IN PRISON, PART THREE

Let’s look at the position of the inmates in my prison classroom a little closer.

Almost by definition he’s young which means he has virtually no perspective. So when he eventually hits the streets after his first conviction he’ll end up getting locked up again - and think it's no big deal. After all, as they say, "everybody's doing it." (He DOESN'T think "only losers are doing it" because his friends are included, and they're no more losers than are your friends and mine, right?) Anyway, he’s back inside, back where he’s come to feel comfortable - life on the streets, frankly, is actually scary since it forces him to provide just about everything for himself (food, shelter, a future, everything) whereas back inside prison he’s gotten comfortable relying on three hot’s and a cot. Without his even realizing it, he has become, as they say, a consumer of correctional services - he gets, say, a two-year sentence, then gets paroled, then a few months, or weeks, later [maybe by 7:30 the night he gets out!] either picks up a new beef or violates his parole and he’s back for 18 months. Next thing he knows he’s 56 and, looking back, he can’t remember spending a complete baseball season on the streets since he was 12.

In short, he’s going to do a life sentence, drip-drip-drip, on the installment plan.

Talk about delusional! 

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

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 18

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

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

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

17 January

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

“Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things.” – Thomas Merton

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

17 January

When I close my eyes I can feel the blood surging and the muscles tingling. I know all the considerable abilities - from will power through imagination to adrenaline – are bending inexorably toward achievement, are meshing happily together, like the music of the spheres, to get the job done, the miracles worked, the dreams realized.

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

 “From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 17

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

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

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

16 January

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

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

From “Me Too, 365,” by Arnold Kunst

15 January

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

“We build Heaven on the edge of a volcano.” - Jonathan Hanaghan

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

16 January

Sometimes it takes courage to shed tears that teeter right there, on the brink. The reward is a quantum leap that morphs “looking at” into “SEEING.” 

“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.” – Deepak Chopra

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

15 January

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

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

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 16

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

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

 From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

January 15

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