You've no doubt heard the name Betsy Ross as she occupies a significant place in the history of our great nation. Born the eighth of seventeen children to Quaker parents, Ross was thrice widowed, lost her mother, father and sister within days to yellow fever and eventually became blind herself, a fact which did not …
Category: Observations on Life
Brotherly Love
"I'd like to see Paris before I die. Philadelphia will do." ~ Mae West Nearly two decades have passed since my last visit to Philadelphia, the former social and geographical center of the original thirteen colonies. What a marvelous city! You've likely heard people call Philadelphia the city of "brotherly love," for the city's name …
Time Alone
"One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more." ~ Thomas Jefferson A new acquaintance asked me if I meditated regularly and I replied in the affirmative, with the caveat that I did not "meditate" in the traditional sense of the word. I explained that I thought best during or shortly after engaging in …
This too shall pass
Anche questo passerà. (This too shall pass.) I was walking the streets of Manhattan yesterday admiring the remarkable product of man's ingenuity, productivity and never-ending creative drive. New York City, the product of the latest empire to serve as world hegemon, is a technical, architectural social, economic and cultural marvel and I daresay that there …
Permanence, Perseverance and Persistence
"Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things, distinguishes the strong soul from the weak." ~ Thomas Carlyle Never give up. John Milton wrote Paradise Lost years after he had lost his eyesight. Fewer than a dozen of Emily Dickinson's poems were published in …
Produce! Produce! Produce!
"But indeed Conviction, were it never so excellent, is worthless till it convert itself into Conduct. Nay properly conviction is not possible till then; inasmuch as all Speculation is by nature endless, formless, a vortex amid vortices: only by a felt indubitable certainty of Experience does it find any centre to revolve round, and so …
Excellence is a Habit
“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” ~ Aristotle I had the pleasure of watching the Academy …
Good Deeds
"How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world." ~ William Shakespeare I was backing out of my office the other day and my view was blocked by the landscaping crew's truck and trailer. I backed slowly and as soon as my tailgate had cleared their trailer …
Do Your Part
In January 2009, Flight 1549 made an emergency landing in the Hudson river after a mid-air collision with a flock of birds. Everyone survived. You have likely heard Captain Sullenberger's story, but for the first time we have a chance to hear from Ric Elias, who was sitting in the front row of that flight. …
Goals, Strategy and Tactics
I remember being somewhat daunted in my early flying days at the prospect of taking a long cross-country flight. When I first began doing solo cross-country flights as a student anything longer than 50 miles from my home airport was a long way. Nowadays, I regularly fly to locations up and down the East Coast, …
Gregory Hake 