New Project

It appears likely that I'll be rolling out a discussion forum of sorts with some others where there can be lively debate and conversation. I'm not sure how that will affect my posting habits here (it will probably increase), but there will probably be some overlap or duplicate posting. If all goes well, look for that over the next couple weeks. The idea itself is novel & collaborative and should make for a good time.

In other news, I spent the weekend with The Sabellian and CK1 (the doctor, not the cologne). As part of Sunday service, the Lord's Prayer was recited -- still wise words after all these years.

Daily Bread: I only have the capacity for about one day's worth of blessings and troubles. Now that I think about it, that's all I can ever handle, but sometimes we presume to take on more. I tend to run in feast-or-famine cycles with habits and the rest of life, so it's an interesting and refreshing change of pace to have a sort of daily sustenance of community, thought, and progress.

Forgive us our trespasses: This is quite an audacious request in light of the wrongs we commit. Thank goodness for God's unending forgiveness. Coupled with it is the sobering reminder of the responsibility to forgive others. An odd juxtaposition of the awareness of my own brokenness, the brokenness of others, and the wholeness of God and how all that fits together. There's a reliance and connectedness that's undeniable.

Viktor Frankl

"What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task."

-- Viktor Frankl

Into the Wild

"The human soul thrives on new experiences."

-- from the movie, Into the Wild

Central tenet of the Sabellian School of Finance

"Always, always borrow against the power of your future earning potential."

-- The Sabellian

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Men are born to write… Whatever he beholds or experiences, comes to him as a model and sits for its picture. He counts it all nonsense that they say, that some things are undescribable. He believes that all that can be thought can be written, first or last; and he would report the Holy Ghost, or attempt it. Nothing so broad, so subtle, or so dear, but comes therefore commended to his pen, and he will write. In his eyes, a man is the faculty of reporting, and the universe is the possibility of being reported."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

(I think I like this guy more now than when I read him in sophomore English class...)

Pauline Wisdom

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

-- from 1 Corinthians 9


So I don't think I understood the purely physical implications of Paul's message until I started running. I'm finishing Day 9 of my habit training (run, write, pray) and this weekend I realized the value of habits. This weekend, I had nothing (pleasant) to look forward to other than spending time with the fam. I decided to take a day off of running, but spent the rest of the weekend dreading various events, procrastinating, and generally squirreling away the hours. Come Monday, I was thankful to be back in a routine that forced me to be productive.

I always envisioned "free time" as the goal or ideal, but now I'm beginning to see too much unstructured time as a sort of Siren Song that sucks me in. I need breaks where I can be creative and let down my guard, but I need a shell of structure that keeps my mind and body alert and moving forward. Otherwise, I'll just spend hours watching television until that wears me out and I need a nap. If I'm going to grab a Saturday afternoon nap, it at least feels more productive if I've been out for a morning jog in the canyon.

And I want to start taking public transit to work (www.irvineshuttle.net), but the experts say only build one habit at a time and I'm already trying to build three habits, so bus schedules will have to wait until July (when gas hits $5/gallon, no doubt).

Matthew Arnold

"Resolve to be thyself: and know, that he who finds himself, loses his misery. "

-- Matthew Arnold

Napoleon Bonaparte

“Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence”

-- Napoleon Bonaparte

As seen in the Library of Congress

"They are never alone that are accompanied by noble thoughts."

Marianne Williamson (or Nelson Mandela??)

"...Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

-- Marianne Williamson

George Patton

A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.

-- George Patton

C. S. Lewis

(about Aslan, the Lion)

"Safe? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good."

-- C. S. Lewis (from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe)

Tiger Woods

"The greatest thing about tomorrow is, I will be better than I am today. And that's how I look at my life. I will be better as a golfer, I will be better as a person, I will be better as a father, I will be a better husband, I will be better as a friend. That's the beauty of tomorrow. There is no such thing as a setback. The lessons I learn today I will apply tomorrow, and I will be better."

-- Tiger Woods

Blaise Pascal

“Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what he loves.”

-- Blaise Pascal

Howard Thurman

"Don’t worry about what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive."

-- Howard Thurman

Henry Ford

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”

-- Henry Ford

Theodore Roosevelt

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly ... who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat.

-- Theodore Roosevelt

Pablo Picasso

“I’d like to live as a poor man with lots of money.”

-- Pablo Picasso

Mark Twain

“Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.”

-- Mark Twain

George Bernard Shaw

“The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me.”

- George Bernard Shaw


Just doing my best to keep on a-changin' ... hopefully for the better ...