4 March The only ones who complete the trip to heaven successfully are the ones who travel light. And that means jettisoning the garbage of recrimination that heaven clearly finds utterly intolerable.

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

4 March

The only ones who complete the trip to heaven successfully are the ones who travel light. And that means jettisoning the garbage of recrimination that heaven clearly finds utterly intolerable.

March 5 One day Lincoln was visiting the sick and wounded. He entered a tent in which lay Confederate wounded. A correspondent quoted him as saying they were 'enemies through uncontrollable circumstances.' After a silence, Confederates came forward and without words shook the hand of the President. Some were too sore and broken to walk or to sit up. The President went among these, took some by the hand, wished them good cheer, and said they should have the best of care. The correspondent wrote, 'Beholders wept at the interview. Most of the Confederates, even, were moved to tears.' ‘You can go forth to your bitterest enemy. Why? Because it is the right thing to do. It is mathematically correct.' - Jonathan Hanaghan

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

March 5

One day Lincoln was visiting the sick and wounded. He entered a tent in which lay Confederate wounded. A correspondent quoted him as saying they were 'enemies through uncontrollable circumstances.' After a silence, Confederates came forward and without words shook the hand of the President. Some were too sore and broken to walk or to sit up. The President went among these, took some by the hand, wished them good cheer, and said they should have the best of care. The correspondent wrote, 'Beholders wept at the interview. Most of the Confederates, even, were moved to tears.'

‘You can go forth to your bitterest enemy. Why? Because it is the right thing to do. It is mathematically correct.' 

- Jonathan Hanaghan

  

“Self deception is sometimes as necessary a tool as a crowbar.” – Moss Hart

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

3 March

You're driving down the freeway and cut some guy off - you were just changing lanes, thinking of something else and feel really bad. Actually you nearly clip his front bumper! A few seconds later that same guy swings out and cuts you off, and in the process he shakes his fist at you. He mouths something you can't mistake but wouldn't want repeated to your mother.

You're driving down the freeway and some guy cuts you off - so close he nearly clips your front bumper. You're so angry you want to cut him off.

The moral of the story: you and I judge ourselves by our intentions; we judge others by their behavior.

“Sprinkle stardust wherever you go.” – Arnold Kunst

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

March 4

'...I only wish to thank you for being so good - and to say how sorry we all are that you must have four years more of this terrible toil. But remember what a triumph it is for the right, what a blessing to the country - and then your rest shall be glorious when it does come! You can't tell anything about it in Washington where they make a noise on the slightest provocation. But if you had been in this little speck of a village this morning and heard the soft, sweet music of unseen bells rippling through the morning silence from every quarter of the far-off horizon, you would have better known what your name is in this nation. May God help you in the future as he has helped you in the past and a people's love and gratitude will be but a small portion of your exceeding great reward.'

- Mary Abigail Dodge, from her village of Hamilton, Massachusetts, written on the day of Lincoln's second inauguration, March 4, 1865.

‘When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt.’

- Anonymous

“Smell the sea and feel the sky; let your soul and spirit fly.” – Van Morrison

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

2 March

You and I are meant to encourage and thank and praise in a multitude of ways, thereby confirming, engendering ever more fully into existence what is already there. After all, the only arena in which two plus two doesn’t equal four plus X is mathematics.