Famous Quotes, Updated For "The Age Of I, Me, Mine"

"Give me liberty or give me death, or maybe a piece of that Facebook IPO."
    - P. Henry

Cousin Eleanor

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself....unless you happen to marry your cousin, then you've got real problems."
    - FDR

"Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes and forgetting your id and password."
  - B. Franklin, D. Defoe

"The pen is mightier than the sword, but the wallet packs the really big wallop."
  -E. Bulwer-Lytton

Famous Pensioner

"Go west, young man....and keep going, not stopping until you've reached East Asia!"
  - H. Greeley

"Beware of enterprises that require new clothes your mom bought you online."
  -H.D. Thoreau


"We shall fight them on the beaches,
  We shall fight on the landing grounds,
  We shall fight in the fields and on the streets,
  We shall fight in the hills.

   And those are just the teachers and pensioners!"
     - W. Churchill

"The buck stops here, even if it was borrowed."
   -H.S. Truman

" I cannot tell a lie, but I can refer you to my lawyer who tells exceptionally good ones: expensive too."

Truman

  - G. Washington

"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do to get that country place with the stables and the pool."
  - JFK

"Don't fire until you see something."
  - S. Palin

"Don't fire until you see something that looks like a duck wearing a beautifully woven Irish Hunting Jacket."
  - D. Cheney

"Don't fire anyone, ever, especially if they're related to you."
                                                - Assorted Secretaries, Mayors, Govs, etc.

The State of The Zzzzzzz.........

Zzzzzzzzz

passion n 1. Any powerful emotion or appetite such as love, joy, hatred, anger, or greed 2. Ardent adoring love 3. Boundless enthusiasm.

Quick Quiz: Americans have a passion for which the following:

a) listening to an hour-long reading of what sounds like an old term-paper by a distinguished graduate of a fine university.

b) hearing an hour-long speech in which there is not a single memorable sentence or compelling new idea.

c) Expecting to receive a direct message from their elected leader, sitting in their homes, only to witness an address really meant for a roomful of people who have a well-deserved reputation for hearing one thing, saying another, and then doing whatever lame thing they like just because they can.

d) Listening to a leader who can throw away the script, dispense with the semi-canned applause, look into citizens hearts, minds, and souls across the networks and the net and energize, motivate and captivate them, because that is what they sorely need.

Well, we finally understand one thing: we know why the Kardashians and Snooki & Co are so popular. They actually demonstrate some passion and fight, even if they do not have many brilliant things to say and aren't going to being writing any term-papers anytime soon.

Let's try a 10 Minutes or Less Speech:

Trillions

1. Wars: We asked our military to fight and win two wars and they did that pretty quickly; then, we really messed up. We backed the wrong or just plain crooked "good" guys. We forgot our original mission. We actually have no idea how much money we've spent and may never know. We've sent billions to one ally-country, and they still hate us and won't help us. We promise never to do these things again.

2. "Recession:" Let's get this straight once and for all. All of us created this mess together. It was a willful act of financial terrorism that we did to ourselves. Citizen borrowers, bank lenders and traders, regulatory and ratings agencies, and federal authorities created this mess. Now, let's shut-up and move on already!

3. Wealth/Work: The Dow Jones has risen, corporate profits are up, corporations are sitting on a couple of $trillion in cash, because they are, by their very nature, not risk-takers. Unemployment remains very high, especially for minorities and for Boomers who can no longer retire. That's the good news. The bad news is that we had actually been over-employed by 2008 and those corporate jobs are not coming back, ever. Get over it, start a business, go back to school, quit whining at tea parties and get working at something, anything. Build something. Bake a pie, make a cake.

4. Health:We're going to put two moms, a dad, a nurse, two doctors, a dentist, one accountant, one child, and one "senior" in a room with people from Apple and Google. They are going to create a new way to provide and pay for healthcare. We will do what they say, and we will never speak of this again. Ever.

Renewable Resource?

5. Education: Knowledge is our most precious natural renewable resource. We take better care of plastic bottles and old newspapers than young minds. But, young minds are not the only renewable resource; we should be committed to lifelong learning. The emerging global economy demands that we be able to learn throughout our lives, to adapt, so that we can earn and continue to be prosperous. Before we can create well-intentioned "programs," before we can rate schools, teachers, students and parents, we need to define what it means to be "educated." What do we need to know, when do we need to know it, who is going to teach it, where are we going to teach it? Education is not just about school; it's about survival, security, prosperity. Math, Science, Reading, yes. What are we teaching that is a waste of time and money? Get rid of it. And, to colleges we say, enough of the full-time pay and part-time classes. Do it in 2-3 years, not 4, and stop wasting space with thousands of semi-pro athletes who will never graduate.

Well, there's a beginning, anyway.

You're welcome, and, by the way, we even like the guy. Oy, enough with the brain, speak with the heart, as the ladies in the Knish Knosh used to say.

Dear St. Peter

We gathered in a small church by the sea to say a private goodbye to a friend. We love the intimacy of a small church by the sea, rather than a large one in or near a city.  Still, a funeral is a funeral no matter where we are, especially in a winter, when so much around us is quiet and still.


When we attend a wedding, our minds might wander afar about many things ; a funeral focuses us on two big issues: Mortality and Eternity, which tend to cloud our thoughts of friendship, love, and loss of the departed.

Mortality is an inarguable issue, except for those who are clinically warped, and they are not likely to receive a day's pass to attend a funeral. Five hundred or even two-hundred years ago Eternity was not  a big issue either, since nearly everyone from Borneo to Madrid believed in an afterlife. Granted, the Christian/Roman Catholic view of afterlife may have been very different from the pagan ones, but the end result was  faith in a spiritual eternity.

See how a mind wanders at funerals!  


Perhaps we have come to a time, when there are really only two kinds of humans: those who believe in an eternal spiritual life, and those who do not. A quick review of our current cultural trends says that we might have more of the latter than the former. How else do we explain the high level of disregard for moral/ethical standards in business, politics, media, academia, or, most sadly at times, organized religions themselves? 

Since my friend was a virtuous person, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that she was already in Heaven getting things organized and implementing new work schedules. 

L & Fs' bow ties

She was a woman who had the audacity to use a single excellent set of values for both business and her personal life. Imagine!  And they were sound ones: honest, compassionate, fair. She was once surrounded by CEO's and others who used one set of values in their personal lives and another to enrich and further themselves in business life. They never quite measured up to her with their pedigrees and degrees, although she never would have said that.

She was extremely self-confident without being arrogant. She was very prosperous without being an ounce pretentious. She was smarter than just about everyone around her, but (mostly) didn't tell you so. She worked harder than anyone else, longer than anyone else, and, most days, better than anyone else. She really did love her family first.Those photos in her office were not just camouflage.


If you worked for her, you had to get it right; you might get a three-page memo correcting your half-page one. But, her idea was nearly always better than yours. You could make a mistake or fail, but you did not want to ever not tell the truth, be afraid to say you were sorry, or compromise your own personal values (or hers). 

Once upon a time, we worked in a company which we liked, in jobs we liked, with people we liked or even loved. I am not making this up. This is before synergy, stock options, burst bubbles, and despicably greedy practices in high places by decidedly mediocre people, who could not have shined the very high-heeled shoes my friend wore so perfectly.

Did I mention that she was also attractive and stylish in ways that made much younger technocrat women in the company look frumpy much of the time, and that she enjoyed every minute of that? It's true.

prosecco

She taught me and others to aim very high in everything and to work hard enough to reach your aim. Once in a while, I even managed to meet her expectations. She demonstrated what love and compassion and devotion to family and work were all about by doing, not merely saying. She included my family in her family, but I still knew who was boss. And she did too. And that was fine with me. Still is.

Dear St. Peter, I know how you feel, but do not worry because you will also have a lot of fun despite being exhausted at the end of each day, except, of course, your days never end or begin. She will like that. Please make sure to stock plenty of dry white wine, especially prosecco. In eastern Long Island, NY there is a store called Loaves and Fishes. No, I'm not making this up either or being disrespectful to You Know Whom. Please arrange for them to make special deliveries. 

Finally, just relax. After all this time, Heaven will be as perfect as it was meant to be. I'm betting that she's already made it so. Join a heavenly gym, drink a lot of water, use Spell Check and just go with it. 


Respectfully and Sadly Yours,

Civility, Yes, But First Reverence

JDavis, Lincoln, USGrant

Passionate calls for dis-order in the republic have been replaced overnight by a call for a new civility, based on the tragic events in Arizona. This is a fine thing; however, we would go a step further and say that without reverence, which is a much deeper commitment to the ideas, ceremonies, and beliefs of other people, there can be no true and lasting civility among people who either agree or disagree.

Why do we think this? As it happens, we were cleaning the bookshelves late last year, when we came upon a small forgotten book titled Reverence: Renewing A Forgotten Virtue by Paul Woodfruff. Oxford University published this book in 2001, a year in which we sorely needed it as it turned out.

As you know, we draw the line here at offering rants, sermons, speeches, and lectures, which you can find elsewhere simply by turning on your phone, TV, and soon probably your microwave.  Our usual purpose and aim is to be amusing; it's just that there are certain times when, as the teacher Dainin Katagiri says, "You have to say something."

Here's a little of what Woodruff says about reverence:

"Reverence begins in a deep understanding of human limitations; from this grows the capacity to be in awe of whatever we believe lies outside our control - God, truth, justice, nature, even death. The capacity for awe, as it grows, brings with it the capacity for respecting other human beings, flaws and all."

Red/Blue©2008TWMcDermott

"Voting in a democracy is a ceremony, and the peoples who turn out in large numbers to vote, unlike Americans, have a strong feeling for the value of ceremony. That feeling comes from reverence."


"To forget that you are only human, to think you can act like a god - this is the opposite of reverence. Ancient Greeks thought that tyranny was the height of irreverence, and they gave the famous name hubris to the crimes of tyrants. An irreverent soul is arrogant and shameless, unable to feel awe in the face of things higher than itself. As a result, an irreverent soul is unable to feel respect for people it sees as lower than itself..."


"It is a natural mistake to think that reverence belongs to religion. It belongs, rather, to community. Wherever people try to act together, they hedge themselves around with some form of ceremony or good manners, and the observance of this can be an act of reverence. Reverence lies behind civility and all of the graces that make life in society bearable and pleasant...."


And that is just in the first two chapters; there is much more and we recommend it, not just for reading, but for absorption into our lives.

But, how do we get to reverence? We repeat: we make no sermons here; however, our friend, Teacher Katagiri, may be helpful: Listen:

Leap©2009TWMcDermott

"When you really understand your life - when you really understand what makes it possible for all beings to exist - there is nothing to say. You just keep silent. But still you have to do something. This is why I always tell you to keep your mouth shut and act with true heart. Buddha-nature is the state of your life as you stand atop a hundred foot pole. you have to do something. Take one step."

Happy Landings.

Ed Note: You Have To Say Something by Dainin Katagiri, Edited by Steve Hagan, Shambala, 1998:
http://www.shambhala.com/html/catalog/items/isbn/978-1-57062-462-9.cfm
Reverence:  http://www.amazon.com/Reverence-Renewing-Forgotten-Paul-Woodruff/dp/0195157958
Photo of Lincoln between Memoirs of both Jefferson Davis and US Grant from Thirdgarage's library. Collages by the author

Walking Around: Like a Glock With Them Fries?

One: Number 31, Jackson Pollack

©copyright2011TWMcDemott

"Those who understand the mysteries of art are made happier by doing so"- Roy R. Neuberger

There is a planet on which inhabitants feel a real sense of comfort in being able to grab a cheeseburger, fries and a Glock with ammo in the same store with little difficulty. They just never know when some rabbit or deer is going to jump their nuclear pickup on the way home. They want to be prepared for all eventualities, of course, but it also just feels great for them to know they're packing and can blow something to smithereens. This gives them a sense of clarity in a chaotic universe. Talk about aliens.

Reportedly, these folks live in our galaxy. I am one Silly Rabbit who hopes they don't visit Earth anytime soon.

Admittedly though, we all live in that same chaotic universe. When I get a little frazzled, I grab the 9:46 to the city, rather than my holster, and head for a museum. This week it was for a return visit to MOMA's Abstract Expressionist show. Funny thing, but the more abstractly weird our "real" world gets, the more these AE artists seem to be painting with focused clarity.

Where I once saw confusion in Jackson Pollack's One: Number 31, shown above, I now see more rhythm than blues. Where it once seemed like a canvas full of questions, it now seems like a google full of answers. It looks to me like a picture of life, true love,  a snow storm, landscape of bare trees, and just colored lines of paint perfectly dropped. Well, after all, it took 31 tries.

Above right,  is a picture of a piano I saw at MOMA. If you look closely, you will see that it has a hole in its middle. The hole allowed Guillermo Calzadilla to stand inside the piano. Why would he want to do that? To play the 4th Movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony backwards and upside down that's why.
Did I mention that he does this while walking around? He does. Talk about Silly Rabbits.

Is this great art? Who cares, it's fun, like the circus. Performance art is the reality TV of the museum world, and much of it is pretentious, boring or downright sacrilegious. It is the product of having too many curators with too much time on their hands and too many other curator friends to impress.

But, following a live Walkman, while he plays Ode To Joy works as long as we keep in mind that Beethoven's music is the real real thing and Guillermo is but a clever gent with an unusual talent.

If you do not have the time or the extra cash, a visit to MOMA is a very inexpensive way to visit Europe. Many of the visitors one encounters are actually Europeans and many others are Americans, who want to appear European.

You can feel pretty certain that nobody in this crowd is packing a weapon despite the amazing fact that there is absolutely no real security whatsoever at MOMA, as there is in every building lobby surrounding it.

That is the way we use to live. Talk about another planet. That alone is worth the price of admission. Ode To Joy, indeed.

Loose Change

I cannot remember exactly where I was when I first heard the term "change-agent," but it was very likely in a sheet-rocked conference room in an office tower. I can say with some certainty that the term was used in a self-referential way, as in, "I am a change-agent," by someone in a drab suit, not too many years removed from business school.

We, the audience, had little doubt that we were the ones about to change and not the agent her/himself. 

Shortly after leaving that room, most of us filed  "change-agent" together with with other similar pronouncements like "I just want to be honest with you" or "I am truly humbled...." We knew from experience that the really honest ones don't feel a need to tell you; the truly humbled are too humble to tell you; and that change agents get to be that way by making a courageous and/or creative decision at the right moment, but we tend to only find out about it later. Much later in many cases.

Riding to the rescue. Again.

Our national and state forts are currently surrounded by people chanting about how they are going to change things. They are beating the old change drums about reducing deficits, forgetting that they already did that several administrations ago. They are going to cut spending and lower taxes, a rabbit that they've previously pulled out of more hats than Coco Chanel ever dreamt of making.

And,of course, we are also going to get better schools in order to keep up with the Chinese, who have a billion or so people still living very close to what could pass for bare subsistence living. We are going to have fantastically generous healthcare provided by the private sector which gave us free mortgages. And, we can still fight a couple of wars without knowing exactly why or whether our ally is also the close ally of our enemy, whom our leaders cannot find in the forest while they are busy directing the brave and patient troops to storm the trees.

Governor Joe?

This is all wonderful stuff. John Wayne is back in charge of the cavalry in the nation's capital. When he's finished weeping, he's going to come save us. Joe Piscopo (SNL) or someone who looks exactly like him is in charge in Albany, where members of the legislature listening to his change speech thought he meant quarters, nickels, and dimes. 


Next thing you know, Al Franken will be in the Senate!

Someone has to do the laughing in the midst of all this chanting, weeping and wailing, and it might as well be us.

Meanwhile, with all this talk about change, we better get ready for more of the same. But, as FDR said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself....unless you marry your cousin, and then you've got real problems." 


Or something like that.