"We are strange beings, we seem to go free, but we go in chains - chains of training, custom, convention, association, environment - in a word, Circumstance - and against these bonds the strongest of us struggle in vain." - Mark Twain Your perspective is conditioned by and subject, in part, to your experience. Education …
Tag: mark twain
Mind over Matter
"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." - Mark Twain Can you imagine a world free of relatives? I certainly can. A carefree world in which people do not judge or criticize themselves based on relativistic notions that have little to nothing to do with their true, …
New Experiences
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." ~ Mark Twain I was speaking with fellow yesterday who had spent the …
The Almost Right Word
"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning." ~ Mark Twain, Letter to George Bainton, 10/15/1888 So the reading of the Constitution was interesting, as much for what they left out as for the fact that they read it …
Worry and Choice
"Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight." ~Benjamin Franklin Talking somebody down from the wall of worry is not an easy task. To do so you must deftly skirt accusations like "you just don't understand" and "you're not hearing me" while reassuring, distracting and refocusing attention on …
Personal Association – Your Inner Child
"We are always too busy for our children; we never give them the time or interest they deserve. We lavish gifts upon them; but the most precious gift, our personal association, which means so much to them, we give grudgingly." ~Mark Twain Having just departed on a business trip I find myself thinking constantly of …
An Ode to my Friends on a Hot Summer’s Morn’
"I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better." ~Plutarch Sympathy is the death knell of a good friendship. Empathy, on the other hand, is a restorative balm that heals life's cuts and scrapes. Sympathy says to another "you are right to …
Continue reading An Ode to my Friends on a Hot Summer’s Morn’
The Joy of Work
"In ev'ry job that must be done, there is an element of fun!" ~Mary Poppins While I am not typically quick to admit it, as the father of two young boys I have watched several kid's movies enough times to know the lines by heart. The classic movies from my day, such as Mary Poppins, …
Real Friends and Unconditional Love
"If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together...there is something you must always remember. you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. but the most important thing is, even if we're apart.. I'll always be with you." - Winnie the Pooh Pooh's kind words are the words …
“Daddy, what was war?”
My eldest son, who just turned five, loves to ask me questions on the way to school every morning. "Excuse me Daddy, what types of storms are there?" "Daddy, what is the difference between asphalt and concrete?" "Why does it look like the moon is following us, Daddy?" The questions come daily, and I am thrilled to help provide …
Gregory Hake 