The Golden Ratio

The Parthenon in Athens, the Pyramids of Gaza, even Nature's rose petals and the arms of a starfish, are all constructured around a number known as the Golden Ratio which is 1 plus the square root of 5 divided by 2 or 1.618033988------ an irrational number with decimals which go on forever without ever repeating in a pattern. Objects so constructed are visually pleasing to the human eye.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

"This is my letter to the World
That never wrote to Me ----
The simple News that Nature told ---
With tender Majesty

Her Message is committed
To Hands I cannot see ---
For love of her -- Sweet -- countrymen
Judge tenderly -- of Me."

Stephen S. Wise

"An unshared life is not living. He who shares does not lessen, but greatens, his life."

Geoffrey Chaucer

His, "The Canterbury Tales" (1390) established English as a literary language when French and Latin were standard - even in England - at the time. Thus, he paved the way for Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and other giants of English literature.

Mike Dooley

"If you only knew just how literally true all of these Notes are - concerning your power, your strenght, and your divinnity, about the love, the magic,and the infinite possibilities ------- for the next few days you'd see the rest of the world ------- throught tears. And you'd never stop giving thanks.
Ain't life grand?"
(Notes from the Universe)

Mike Dooley

'It's your degree of faith, your belief in benevolent powers and events unseen, that summons the magic, either in huge gobs or in drips snd drops. Go for the gobs, it costs the same."
(from "Notes from the Universe")

Blaise Pascal

"All generalizations are false, including this one,"

Michel de Montaigne

"The Ancient Mariner said to Neptune during a great storm, 'O God, you will save me if you wish, but I am going to go on holding my tiller straight.' "

Michel de Montaigne

"The Ancient Mariner said to Neptune during a great storm, 'O God, you will save me if you wish, but I am going to go on holding my tiller straight.' "

Flannery O'Connor

"There's many a best seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher."

J. C. Ryle

"No time is so well spent in every day as that which we spend upon our knees."

George Orwell

On this day in 1950, he died at age 46. He was acclaimed for his two novels, "Animal Farm" in 1945 and "1984" just 7 months before he died. I have read and enjoyed both.

David Knight

"An expert is someone who is one page ahead of you in the manual."

Joseph Conrad

"Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art, as of life."

Murphy's Law

A dropped slice of bread will always fall butter side down.
(example)

Anne Hunninghake

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is that little voice at the end of the day that says 'I'll try again tomorrow'."

Winter

After a few 30 degree days, winter is returning to Indiana - sub-zero temperatures forcast over nights this weekend with windchills in the range of minus 14 to minus 18 degrees.

Robert Sevrice

On this day in 1874 he was born in Preston England. When he was 21 he went to Canada and spent 3 winters in White Horse where he began to write poetry in the "Great White Silence". His poems "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee" were favorites of the Queen Mother of Great Britain.

Blaise Pascal

"The heart has its reasons that the mind knows nothing of."

George Carlin

"You have to stay in shape. My mother started walking 5 miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 now and we have no idea where she is."

Antonio Porchia

"Nothing that is complete breathes"

Charles Schulz

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today, it's already tomorrow in Australia."

I believe that there is a fragil spark of divinity in the soul of every human being.

Abraham Lincoln

"The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time."

Ethel Barrymore

"You grow up the day you have the first real laugh at yourself."

Aphorisms

Clifton Fadiman described the aphorism as a "part truth containing only as much wisdom as overstatement will permit - its plausibility deriving from its concision, which stuns. We say we admire total perspective but secretly we would rather settle for the single brilliant insight."

Aphorisms

"Is it progress if a cannibal uses knife and fork?"

"If a man who cannot count finds a four-leaf clover, is he entitled to happiness?"

"It is only a meteor, said the candle with contempt."

"O solitude, how overpopulated you are."

(Stanislaw Jerzy Lec)

Reminders

Don't refuse to consider an opposing view.

Don't take myself too seriously.

Don't ever lose my sense of humor.

Henri Frederic Amiel

"Learn to ..... be what you are, and to resign with a good grace all that you are not."

Kathie Lee Giffford

At about age 5 she was singing a simple little childhood song a cappella and her father was recording. Suddenly she stopped and said
"Where's da moosic Daddy?"
Her Daddy replied
"Oh, sweetheart, you've got to learn to make your own music."

Still recovering from drug reaction - better but not back yet - hope to resume blogging soon - best wishes to all.