Vignette

I remember watching a majestic dirigible move across the sky. This was no blimp, but a huge metal framed hydrogen filled airship of the Hindenberg class. The Hindenberg (as you may know) came to a disasterous end by fire at Lakehurst New Jersey in 1937 with many fatalities - ending, as well, the use of these majestic ships as a means of air travel.

Maya Angelou

"Life likes to be taken by the lapel and told 'I am with you kid. Let's go'."

Jawaharal Nehru

"Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will."

Vignette ( they keep coming to mind)

I remember going to my grandmother's house for breakfast. She was my mother's mother and the only grandparent I ever knew. She was a slender tiny little lady. Her maiden name was Tennyson and she could trace her ancestry back to the great poet. But she also had American Indian blood. Back along the way one of the Tennysons had married Princess Gahoga of the Deer Clan of the Cherokee Tribe. But I digress - back to the breakfast! She made huge flakey biscuits, thick white gravy to pour over the biscuit halves, lightly fried salt pork with thick tender delicious fat. It wasn't special for us - she believed in starting the day with something to "stick to the ribs." (cholesterol hadn't been discovered yet)

Fidelity

"Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose."
(Helen Keller's Journal - 1938.)

Poets

I have often quoted poets - Kipling, Blake, Poe, Longfellow, Alexander Pope. They are not like ordinary mortals - they feel, conceive, and give birth to what I call "nuggets of gold." They remind me of musicians who do not read music but rather play by ear. I admire both the musician and the poet who do their thing by what they feel.

Microcosm

In this his book, George Gilder, graphically describes the dissimilar assortment of people to whom we are indebted for today's computer. Some quotes: "From immigrants and outcasts, street toughs and science wonks, the bearded and the beer bellied, the tacky and the uptight, the midnight modem and pizza breakfasts, the pony tailed and the punk, from fanaticism and desperation, from ambition and hunger, fron genius and sweat of the outsider, from Britain, Israel, Malaya, Iowa, Havana, Brooklyn, Boise, Belgrade, and Vienna, --- come most of the progress in Silicon Valley." With all their differences in life style, they had one common denominator - a dedication to the practical potential of the microcosm - a dedication that demands no class conscienceness. This is the fascinating story of California's Silicon Valley.

Vignette (again)

I remember the first radio I ever saw. This electronic marvel had three large dials on the black bakelite front. To tune in to one of the few stations broadcasting, we had to know the specific numerical setting for each of the three dials. The squeaky distorted sound was astounding to all. I couldn't understand how sound could travel for miles through the air. I still can't.

A Vignette

My first love was an older woman. I was 4 years old, Forrest Lee was 6. She took me to the bedroom to show me her father's gun. She was afraid of it. But I lifted the heavy revolver from the drawer, looked it over, and put it back. I had shown my love how brave I was. But then I told my mother. Had I known what her reaction would be I probably wouldn't have told her. Anyway, I didn't feel like a hero anymore and I never did that again.

John Locke

The principles which we hold so dear and consider so American were conceived in the mind of a brilliant Englishman. In 1690, John Locke wrote two letters "Letters concerning Toleration" and issued his two "Treatises on Government". Our founding forefathers recognized the values of these principles and made them anchor points in the Constitution of the United States and its Bill of Rights.

Caring

"But some emotions don't make a lot of noise. It's hard to hear pride. Caring is real faint like a heart beat. And pure love - some days it's so quiet you don't even know it's there." (I found this quote but it didn't list an author.)

Blog

As I sit down each day to write my blog, various images cross my mind - those of my grandkids, whom I would like to inspire; those of suffering friends, whom I would like to console; those of my few remaining elderly friends, like me, one of whom recently wrote me saying "I was always taught to respect my elders but they are getting harder and harder to find." And so I'm sure my blogs lack any coherence but I'm reminded of Emerson's counsel: "Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

Pearl Buck

"I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in the kindness of human beings. I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and angels."

Life

Wouldn't it be boring to live in a world where there were no unanswered questions? I believe it is good that we do not know it all. We live exciting lives in exciting times. Why should we fear change? To fear change is to fear life. Life is dynamic, ever-changing, unpredictable. Life is what's happening. To use the media cliche, we live the "breaking story". It is happening - and we are a part of it!

Sir Arthur Helps

"Wise sayings often fall on barren ground; but a kind word is never thrown away."

Kahlil Gibran

"A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is a hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?"

The Queen's Gambit

I haven't read fiction for many years but this book by Walter Trevis is so fascinating I can't put it down. It's a success story of a little orphan girl who learned to play chess by watching the janitor play in the basement of the orphanage. It's a success story that reads like a mystery novel. I suppose you have to love chess as I do to truly appreciate it. I play against the computer at times - keeps me humble.

Spring?

On this day, the snow drift on my porch has finally melted away - the drift had been blown in on February 14th - the blizzard of 2007. Can spring wild flowers be far behind? Some snow still lingers in shaded areas.

Charles Lamb

"The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth and have it found out by accident."

A Vignette (of long ago)

It had stormed the night before - I braked suddenly as obstacles loomed ahead. Several broken limbs lay scattered across the country road. I slowed down and picked my way - driving first left then right and I was through and on my way. But then my rear view I saw another traveler, who had followed me, who had stopped and got out of his pickup truck. I thought he could surely get through in a truck. But he had nobler thoughts than I. He was dragging debris to the side ditch - limb by limb - clearing the road for those who followed. I felt a blush of shame and I remember still.

Helen Keller

"No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit."

Joseph Conrad

"Each blade of grass has its spot on earth whence it draws its life; and so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life."

Another Vignette

I was sitting on the patio at sunup one summer morning last year. A drop of dew on a blade of grass had been shaped in such a way by the contour of the leaf that it acted like a prism. A ray of sunrise found the drop and every color of the rainbow reflected into my eyes - and with that flash came instantly two other flashes - one, a flash of Joseph Conrad's quote of beauty (an earlier blog) - and two, a flash of serenity - that everything was OK in the universe.

Cold

Sometimes a line or two of poetry will stick in the memory although no effort was made to retain them. For me an example is Keats's graphic description of "cold.":
"St. Agnes Eve - Ah bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers was a-cold;
The hare limp't trembling through the frozen grass,
and silent was the flock in wooly fold."

"Don't wait for people to be friendly, show them how."

Gloom

Some time ago as I sat at dawn over coffee one wintry morning, I was deeply troubled with a nagging concern. As the sun started to rise a tiny Chickadee flew up to my window and sat quietly looking at me as if to say he understood my gloom. I smiled in appreciation and began to feel better. It seemed he wanted to be sure because he stayed with me as if he had nothing more important to do. And I began to feel that everything would be alright.

Sir Francis Bacon

"Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Feeling is deep and still; and the word that floats on the surface is the tossing buoy, that betrays where the anchor is hidden."

Supernovas

These cataclysms happen every few seconds in some remote galaxy, blazing as bright as hundreds of billions of stars and creating a fireball that expands for months. We're lucky they rarrely strike close to home. The last one in our galaxy exploded in 1604, rivaling Jupiter's brightness in the night sky. A nearby supernova - within a few light years - would bathe the earth in lethal radiation. (National Geographic March 2007)