you can crush the flowers, but you can't delay spring.

“In Arabic, we say ‘No and a thousand times no.’”

the gray area

The Truth about dishonesty: countless small acts of rationalization.

a longer view

Browsing Organized Wonder, I found two of my favorite people discussing my favorite things.


(interview between Stephen Colbert and Neil deGrasse Tyson  begins at 6:30)
ps- this interview is pre Higgs Boson particle

a dream I dreamed

"Is there not in every human soul, was there not in the soul of Jean Valjean in particular, a first spark, a divine element, incorruptible in this world, immortal in the other, which good can develop, fan, ignite, and make to glow with splendor, and which evil can never wholly extinguish?"
~ Victor Hugo



I saw Les Miserables last night. Now I can't wait for the movie...

forgetfulness

Former Poet Laureate, Billy Collins...

excellent animated poetry.

Forgetfulness - Billy Collins

The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

wholehearted courage

"As children we found ways to protect ourselves from vulnerability, from being hurt, diminished, and disappointed. We put on armor; we used our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors as weapons; and we learned how to make ourselves scarce, even to disappear. Now as adults we realize that to live with courage, purpose, and connection - to be the person whom we long to be - we must again be vulnerable. We must take off the armor, put down the weapons, show up, and let ourselves be seen." 

- Daring Greatly, Brene Brown

because

Today, Neil Gaiman retweeted this post:

Garrett, aka Vanilla Garlic: Stories of my life through food, used an awesome, "wonky, odd, delightful" piece of writing by Neil Gaiman in his wedding ceremony. I only wish I would have thought of it.

I love weddings and true love and hope and courage... and jam as a parting gift.

If you love love too (and kiwi gin cocktails), check out Garrett's post on marriage Here.

Here's Neil Gaiman's bit... Enjoy:


The Day the Saucers Came

That Day, the saucers landed. Hundreds of them, golden,
Silent, coming down from the sky like great snowflakes,
And the people of Earth stood and
stared as they descended,
Waiting, dry-mouthed, to find out what waited inside for us
And none of us knowing if we would be here tomorrow
But you didn’t notice because

That day, the day the saucers came, by some coincidence,
Was the day that the graves gave up their dead
And the zombies pushed up through soft earth
or erupted, shambling and dull-eyed, unstoppable,
Came towards us, the living, and we screamed and ran,
But you did not notice this because

On the saucer day, which was zombie day, it was
Ragnarok also, and the television screens showed us
A ship built of dead-men’s nails, a serpent, a wolf,
All bigger than the mind could hold,
and the cameraman could
Not get far enough away, and then the Gods came out
But you did not see them coming because

On the saucer-zombie-battling-gods
day the floodgates broke
And each of us was engulfed by genies and sprites
Offering us wishes and wonders and eternities
And charm and cleverness and true
brave hearts and pots of gold
While giants feefofummed across
the land and killer bees,
But you had no idea of any of this because

That day, the saucer day, the zombie day
The Ragnarok and fairies day,
the day the great winds came
And snows and the cities turned to crystal, the day
All plants died, plastics dissolved, the day the
Computers turned, the screens telling
us we would obey, the day
Angels, drunk and muddled, stumbled from the bars,
And all the bells of London were sounded, the day
Animals spoke to us in Assyrian, the Yeti day,
The fluttering capes and arrival of
the Time Machine day,
You didn’t notice any of this because
you were sitting in your room, not doing anything,
not even reading, not really, just
looking at your telephone,
wondering if I was going to call.

breathe it

If you’re going to try to persuade me, 

persuade me with the whole truth.

Don’t just tell a story.

Live and breathe it too.

cooperation

21 swings - a fresh look at the idea of cooperation and the notion that we can achieve more together than alone.

Check out Daily Tous Les Jours HERE

memories

the faces of 9/11

“If you remember me, 

then I don't care if everyone else 

forgets.” 

― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

part manifesto, part handbook

I just read Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier. 

Cover Tag Line:
"Ignore this book at your own peril." - Seth Godin 

I'm not a business owner and I don't have an MBA, but I loved this book. It gives voice to many of my own thoughts and can be applied to nonprofits and education... 
and I love any book that promotes challenging conventional wisdom in a direct and humorous way.

“When you don’t know what you believe, everything becomes an argument. Everything is debatable. But when you stand for something, decisions are obvious.”― Jason Fried, Rework

Ignore the real world  “That would never work in the real world.” You hear it all the time when you tell people about a fresh idea.This real world sounds like an awfully depressing place to live. It’s a place where new ideas, unfamiliar approaches, and foreign concepts always lose. The only things that win are what people already know and do, even if those things are flawed and inefficient.  Scratch the surface and you’ll find these “real world” inhabitants are filled with pessimism and despair. They expect fresh concepts to fail. They assume society isn’t ready for or capable of change. Even worse, they want to drag others down into their tomb. If you’re hopeful and ambitious, they’ll try to convince you your ideas are impossible. They’ll say you’re wasting your time.” ― David Heinemeier Hansson, Rework 

“It’s a beautiful way to put it: Leave the poetry in what you make. When something becomes too polished, it loses its soul. It seems robotic.” ― Jason Fried, Rework 

on a mote of dust

momentary masters of a fraction of a dot

I've posted this before, but needed to read it again today:

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

every day

I'm reading a wonderful book: every day by David Levithan. It is unique and beautifully written. When I'm done I'll post about it on One Page to the Next.

But this bit struck me as extremely timely... and I thought I would share it.

I no longer think she's just being nice. She's being kind. Which is much more a sign of character than mere niceness. Kindness connects to who you are, while niceness connects to how you want to be seen.