“… genetically and mentally mutated people. The entire ecosystem mutates.” Vineet Raj Kapoor

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

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.

[By contrast may I continue to be the proverbial round peg in all the proverbial square holes of life.]

“They all laughed when I said I’d become a comedian. Well, they’re not laughing now.” – Bob Monkhouse

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst:

June 7

'I am a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him down.'

'He is able who thinks he is able.'

- Buddha

“Dazzling dreams deserve more than Mickey-Mouse effort.” – Arnold Kunst

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

I know my head is screwed on straight when I enjoy paying in the proper coinage the price[s] demanded by success.

Democracy “gives the weak the same chance as the strong.” – Mahatma Gandhi

June 6  

‘Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.’

- Abraham Lincoln

‘Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.’

- Plato

“Every human being is a problem in search of a solution.” – Ashley Montagu

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

Life is replete with confusion and frustration, with injustice and folly, with gargantuan abusive/abusing self-centeredness. Evil seems inextricably woven into the fabric of life. More often than you and I care to admit, our noses are forced into that evil. But as prevalent as is evil, so prevalent are sunsets and rosebuds. Surely you and I are meant to drink in all that abundant beauty - beauty poured out for us with such casual prodigality. Surely beauty of that magnitude, of that diversity, is meant to feed, at least partially, our parched spirits as we cope with those inescapable evils. Stop to smell the flowers and feed the soul.

“Sometimes being a brother is better than being a superhero.” – Mark Brown

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst:

June 5

'I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be the Union as it was.’

- Abraham Lincoln

'All we are saying is, “Give peace a chance.”’

- John Lennon

"You may regret what you say, but never your silence[s]." - Arnold Kunst

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

My God made me to move mountains, not to whimper excuses. To be self-possessed, prodigal, joyous. To cavort with all the freedom and playfulness of some magnificent animal broke out finally from the entangling undergrowth into God's very own broad sunlit uplands