"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." ~ Albert Einstein I've often marveled at the ingenuity of those standouts in history who dedicated their lives to the restoration of goodness and truth to their rightful place at the apex human understanding and function. It hasn't been easy. Human beings …
Category: Observations on Life
In Retrospect
"Righteousness is easy in retrospect." ~Arthur Schlesinger Jr. How true is that?!? More often than not the right thing to do is the least popular thing to do. Politicians find themselves between a rock and a hard place on this point as reelection concerns are often pitted against the need to support unpopular but clearly …
The Fountain of Life
"A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up." ~ Albert Schweitzer Man's obsession with the discovery of the fountain of youth reaches deep into early history. Whether driven by the desire to overcome his mortality or by the quest to rediscover the key to …
Dust of Snow
Dust of Snow by Robert Frost The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I had rued. It has been an interesting weekend, starting with an all-nighter caring for a sick child …
The Spirit of the Age
"The spirit of the age is filled with the disdain for thinking." ~ Albert Schweitzer Learning to think is one of the most underrated and overlooked of the steps that lead to living a purposeful, meaningful and fulfilling life. Far more than developing the ability to ingest, digest and retain information, learning to think involves …
Reverence for Life
The holidays are fast upon us and I had the good pleasure of watching A Charlie Brown Christmas with my sons after dinner last evening. At one point in the show, Linus mentioned that Albert Schweitzer's dislike of Christmas stemmed from the fact that he did not take kindly to writing thank you notes. I …
A Converging World
The last two hundred years were particularly transformative for humanity. Dramatic increases in both longevity and wealth swept across the globe, affecting the industrialized nations first and the developing nations second. While a wide gap remains between the richest and the poorest nations, just about every nation is better off no than they were two …
Good Policy: Magnanimity
MAGNANIM'ITY, n. [L. magnanimitas; magnus, great, and animus, mind.] Greatness of mind; that elevation or dignity of soul, which encounters danger and trouble with tranquillity and firmness, which raises the possessor above revenge, and makes him delight in acts of benevolence, which makes him disdain injustice and meanness, and prompts him to sacrifice personal ease, …
Pressure is a Privilege
My wife heard an interesting statement on TV yesterday evening and was thrilled to share it with me this morning, for it was both empowering and revolutionary: "Pressure is a Privilege" The statement: "pressure is a privilege" defines a novel way to look at the various pressures you face in your world. Rather than see …
Hasty Judgment
"A hasty judgment is a first step to recantation." ~ Publius Syrus I have an acquaintance who is one of the most outstanding examples of someone who is hasty in judgment, but slow to recant. Both are curses to her and I wish there was some way that she could be free of one or …
Gregory Hake 