A disciple once complained,
"You tell us stories, but you never
reveal their meaning to us."
Said the master,
"How would you like it if someone
offered you fruit and masticated it
before giving it to you?"
Comment:
No one can find your meaning for you.
Not even the master.
Anthony De Mello: The Song of the
Bird
"Do you know what the difference is between an overachiever and a corpse? What the former calls his résumé, the latter recognizes as an obituary.
An overachiever believes that if he or she only looks hard enough, seeks diligently enough, reflects long enough, and suffers enough, that happiness and success will eventually come. The Overachievers Simple Guide is for those of us who have come to recognize the fallacy of this belief, and wonder, what now?
"This 25 page booklet is about everything else there is in life, aside from awesomeness and achievement. It is for the overachiever who knows some really awesome people, and exactly for that reason, doesn’t want to be them. OASG is not going to tell you anything you don’t already know. It is only going to tell you what you already know but haven’t yet heard. It is not meant for the fearless daredevil, those unique individuals who don't care if they die young or old, alone or among loved ones."
O.A. Chiever, an old friend, sent me a link to his book which is now available free or for 99 cents at the Kindle Store. He wrote: "For fun, I have put together a few short essays into a 25 page ebook, which I've self-published and is now available on Amazon for Kindle. (If you don't have one, you can always read it online, or on your ipad/iphone)."
For those of you who are interested, it's an amazing read. Takes ~ one hour. Get OSGSL If you want to read it, but dont have a Kindle, iPhone or iPad, write me and I'll see if Dr. Chiever can send you a copy.
To mark the forty-eighth anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy, the Times has posted a short documentary film by Errol Morris “The Umbrella Man.” The film features an interview with Josiah (Tink) Thompson, the author of “Six Seconds in Dallas,” a micro-study of the assassination, and centers on the mystery surrounding a man who appears in the Zapruder film, standing in Dealey Plaza, just as the shots rang out. On a perfectly pleasant day, why was this man holding a black umbrella? It was a question that launched a host of conspiracy theories related to the assassination.
Jonathan Harris (b. 1979) makes projects that reimagine how humans relate to technology and to each other. In late 2007, he traveled to Bhutan to research Happiness Bhutan-style. He recently created Balloons of Bhutan which all of you will enjoy. It is a labor of joy, love and celebration.
Mahalo, brah: "Geev 'em!" Balloons of Bhutan
I'd heard the name, but never pursued any information. Then, I saw this quote:
Hubbard was an extraordinary individual. To learn more about him see Wikipedia.
He and his wife walked the ultimate walk on the Lusitania.
A few Elbert Hubbard quotes.
Yesterday, February 17, 2011, began with an amazing light show. The ancient gods performed their magic -- short lived but inspiring. The day ended with another kind of "light show." Williams College has a Winter Carnival and it is inaugurated with a fireworks extravaganza. La.
Strangely, the Williams event is roughly the same time as Chap Goh May, the 15th day of the Chinese New Year. I am pretty sure none of the organizers knew this. I found this description of CGM on a Malaysian blog, La:
.
year’s end, and all
corners of this floating world -
swept.
Notches in the belt of time... Different cultures -- different New Years
New Years 2011 (in alpha order)
Chinese: Rabbit February 3
Balinese: Nyepi - March 5
Gregorian: Jan 1
Gujarati: Ist Day After Diwali
Iranian: Nowruz -- March 20 -- 25 -- 2570
Islamic New Year occurs on 1 Muharram - 1432
Jewish: Rosh Hashanah September 28 - 30 - 5771
Nepali: April 12 - 15
The Gregorian calendar is a Solar Calender
Many of the others are lunar calendars or variations of that.
and then, there's the analemma...
"Julie Murphy, a 7-year-old Oregonian, set up a lemonade stand on July 29
at an art fair in northeast Portland. County health inspectors shut
her down, however, telling Julie and her mother, Maria Fife, that they
needed a temporary restaurant license, which costs $120. The penalty for
selling food without a permit, they warned, was $500. At 50 cents a
cup, that’s a lot of lemonade." See Article.
Spirited restive flea
become a Buddha
by my hand.
Issa.
The year is 1977 and Art Brownstein, a Southern California surfer dude has just finished his first year of med school on the East Coast. He recently resurrected the journal of his escape to the New England wilderness. Much has changed in the past thirty-three years, but the fastness and fascination of these forests and mountains abides.
His chronicle begins: "At the end of my first year at Jefferson Medical School in Philly, I spent the night before summer vacation making a cardboard sign that said “Maine.” I intended to hold it by the side of the road while hitchhiking, as I had planned a two-week solo outing to the woods of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont to celebrate the successful completion of my inaugural year in med school. My initial destination was Katahdin, sacred Mountain of the aboriginal Penobscot peoples, northernmost point of the Appalachian Trail, and the first place where the sun hits the East Coast on its daily transit of America. Read on:
Download BarefootThe Woods Brownstein1 .
You can contact the author at: Doc Art.
It's a beautiful time of year in the Northeast. Mellow summer. A time when peace comes dropping slow. Our friend, Joan Shaw, from the laid-back isle of Kauai, sent us a video that will have you smiling. Lucas & Shadow Surf Session. It features Shadow, a Jack Russell Terrier, and his human bruddah, Lucas Angulo, a surfer-grom from
Hanalei, Kauai, catching some tiny waves at Retros in
Hanalei Bay.
Emily Dickinson has a poem, By the Sea which begins:
"I started early, took my dog,
And visited the sea;
The mermaids in the basement
Came out to look at me."
I never saw a moor,
I never saw the sea;
Yet know I how the heather looks,
And what a wave must be.
Way to go Shadow, Lucas, Emily too!!
