McLeod
A Few Things to Ponder
"And what is fear of need but need itself?"
_Kahlil Gibran
"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
_Dwight David Eisenhower
Some time ago I received a call from a colleague. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics question, while the student claimed a perfect score... I read the examination question: "Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer."
The student had answered: "Take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to the street, and then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope [which is] the height of the building."
The student really had a strong case for full credit since he had really answered the question completely and correctly! On the other hand, if full credit were given, it could well contribute to a high grade in his physics course and certify competence in physics, but the answer did not confirm this.
I suggested that the student have another try.
I gave the student six minutes to answer the question with the warning that the answer should show some knowledge of physics. At the end of five minutes, he hadn't written anything. I asked him if he wished to give up, but he said he had many answers to this problem; he was just thinking of the best one. I excused myself for interrupting him and asked him to please go on. In the next minute, he dashed off his answer, which read:
"Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop the barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then, using the formula x = 0.5 * a * t 2, calculate the height of the building."
At this point, I asked my colleague if he would give up. He conceded, and gave the student almost full credit.
While leaving my colleagues office, I recalled that the student had said that he had other answers to the problem, so I asked him what they were.
"Well," said the student, "there are many ways of getting the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer. For example, you could take the barometer out on a sunny day and measure the height of the barometer, the length of its shadow, and the length of the shadow of the building. and by the use of simple proportion, determine the height of the building."
"Fine," I said, "and others?"
"Yes," said the student, "there is a very basic measurement method you will like. In this method, you take the barometer and begin to walk up the stairs. As you climb the stairs, you mark off the length of the barometer along the wall. You then count the number of marks, and this will give you the height of the building in barometer units. A very direct method."
"Of course, if you want a more sophisticated method, you can tie the barometer to the end of a string, swing it as a pendulum, and determine the value of g [gravity] at the street level and at the top of the building. From the difference between the two values of g, the height of the building, in principle, can be calculated."
"On this same tack, you could take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to just above the street, and then swing it as a pendulum. You could then calculate the height of the building by the period of the precession."
"Finally," he concluded, "there are many other ways of solving the problem. Probably the best," he said, "is to take the barometer to the basement and knock on the superintendents door [offering him] a fine barometer as a gift if he will tell you the height of the building."
At this point, I asked the student if he really did know the conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did, but said that he was fed up with high school and college instructors trying to teach him how to think.
The name of the student was Niels Bohr.
(Niels Bohr, Danish Physicist; Nobel Prize, 1922; best known for proposing the first "model" of the atom with protons and neutrons, and the various energy states of the surrounding electrons, the familiar icon of the small nucleus circled by three elliptical orbits; but more significantly, an innovator in Quantum Theory.)
Sir Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics:
The things that will destroy us are:
politics without principle;
pleasure without conscience;
wealth without work;
knowledge without character;
business without morality;
science without humanity,
and worship without sacrifice.
_Mohandas K. Gandhi ( 1869-1948 )
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it,
not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your
own common sense.
_Buddha ( 563? - 483? BC )
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth
and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for
a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fail. Think
of it, always."
_Mohandas K. Gandhi ( 1869-1948 )
A good explanation:
never explain anything.
_ Zen Saying
Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we do not have to experience it.
_ Max Risch
"It is crucial that we know this: we can
meet our needs without destroying our
life-support system."
_ Joanna Macy
Barn's burnt down... now I can see the moon.
_ Masahide
The Four Agreements - Toltec Wisdom
BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean.
Avoid using the word to speak against yourself
or to gossip about others. Use the power of your
word in the direction of truth and love.
DON'T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY
Nothing others do is because of you. What
other say and do is a projection of their own
reality, their own dream. When you are immune
to the opinions and actions of others, you won't
be the victim of needless suffering.
DON'T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS
Find the courage to ask questions and to express
what you really want. Communicate with others
as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings,
sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement,
you can completely transform your life.
ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST
Your best is going to change from moment to
moment; it will be different when you are
healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance,
simply do you best, and you will avoid
self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.
_ Don Miguel Ruiz
My music is best understood by children and animals.
_ Igor Stravinsky ( 1882 - 1971 )
Music is spiritual.
The music business is not.
_ Van Morrison
"The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves.
And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work don't buy it."
_ Morrie Schwartz
Our life is frittered away by detail ... Simplify, simplify.
_ Henry David Thoreau ( 1817 - 1862 )
Hope is the enemy of a peaceful mind
_Buddha ( 563? - 483? BC )
When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people
_ Seneca ( 4? BC - AD 65 )
When you are going through hell, keep on going...
_ Sir Winston Churchill
A designer knows he's achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but
when there is nothing left to take away.
_ Antoine de Saint-Exupery (29 June 1900 - 31 July 1944)
Miracles are not contrary to natural law - just contrary to what we know about natural law.
_ Saint Augustine
Take each day as it is something over which you have control.
Criticism eats on you. Forgiveness sets you free.
_ John Wooden ( 1910 - )
A COWBOY'S GUIDE TO LIFE:
Don't squat with your spurs on.
Don't never interfere with somethin' that ain't botherin' you none.
Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
There's more ways to skin a cat than stickin' his head in a boot jack and
jerkin' on his tail.
Some ranchers raise pigs and some will even admit it. Either way,
they're raisin' pigs.
Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day.
The easiest way to eat crow is while it's still warm. The colder it gets,
the harder it is to swaller.
If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.
Never smack a man who's chewin' tobacco.
If it don't seem like it's worth the effort, it prob'ly ain't.
It don't take a genius to spot a goat in a flock of sheep.
The biggest liar you'll ever have to deal with prob'ly watches you shave
his face in the mirror every morning.
Never ask a barber if he thinks you need a haircut.
If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin'
somebody else's dog around.
Don't worry about bitin' off more'n you can chew. Your mouth is prob'ly a
whole lot bigger'n you think.
Always drink upstream from the herd.
Generally, you ain't learnin' nothin' when your mouth is a-jawin'.
Tellin' a man to go to hell and makin' him do it are two entirely
different propositions.
Generally speakin', fancy titles and nightshirts are a waste of time.
Trust everybody in the game, but always cut the cards.
If you're ridin' ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then
to make sure it's still there.
If you're gonna go...go like hell. If your mind's not made up, don't use your spurs.
Some things ain't funny.
You need not leave your room, just sit at your desk and listen. You need not even listen,
just wait. Just be quiet and still and solitary and the whole world will offer itself to
you to be unmasked. It has no choice, it will roll at your feet in ecstasy.
_ Franz Kafka ( 1883-1924 )
GIANTS, WIZARDS, and DWARFS
was the game to play. Being left in charge of about
eight children seven to ten years old, while their parents were off doing parenty things,
I mustered my troops in the church social hall and explained the game. It's a large-scale
version of Rock, Paper, and Scissors, and involves some intellectual decision making.
But the real purpose of the game is to make a lot of noise and run around chasing people
until nobody knows which side your are on or who won.
Organizing a roomful of wired-up gradeschoolers into two teams, explaining the rudiments
of the game, achieving consensus on group identity - all this is no mean accomplishment,
but we did it with a right good will and were ready to go.
The excitement of the chase had reached a critical mass. I yelled out: "You have to decide
now which you are - a GIANT, a WIZARD, or a DWARF!"
While the groups huddled in a frenzied, whispered consultation, a tug came at my pants leg.
A small child stood there looking up, and asks in a small, concerned voice,
"Where do Mermaids stand?"
A long pause. A very long pause. "Where do the Mermaids stand?" says I.
"Yes. You see, I am a Mermaid."
"There are no such things as Mermaids."
"Oh, yes, I am one."
She did not relate to being a Giant, a Wizard, or a Dwarf. She knew her category.
Mermaid. And was not about to leave the game to go over and stand against the wall where
a loser would stand. She intended to participate, wherever Mermaids fit into the scheme
of things. Without giving up dignity or identity. She took it for granted that there was
a place for Mermaids and that I would know just where.
Well, where DO the Mermaids stand? All the "Mermaids" - all those different, who do not
fit the norm and do not accept the available boxes and pigeonholes?
Answer that question and you can build a school, a nation, or a world on it.
What was my answer at the moment? Every once and a while I say the right thing.
"The Mermaid stands right here by the King of the Sea!" says I. (Yes, right here by
the King's Fool, I thought to myself.)
So we stood there hand in hand, reviewing the troops of Wizards and Giants and Dwarfs as
they rolled by in wild disarray.
It is not true, by the way, that mermaids do not exist. I know at least one personally.
I have held her hand.
from: All I really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
_Robert Fulghum
Taoism is the art of being in this world.
There is a thing which is all-containing, which was born before the existence of Heaven and
Earth.
How silent! How solitary!
It stands alone and changes not.
It revolves without danger to itself and is the mother of the universe.
I do not know its name so call it the Tao.
Education, in order to keep up the mighty delusion, encourages a species of ignorance.
People are not taught to be really virtuous, but to behave properly. We are wicked because
we are frightfully self-conscious. We never forgive others because we know that we ourselves
are wrong. We nurse a conscious because we are afraid to tell the truth to others; we take
refuse in pride because we are afraid to tell the truth to ourselves. How can one be serious
with the world when the world itself is so ridiculous!
The Tao is the passage rather than the path.
Taoism: Its absolute is the relative
_ Lao Tsu ( 6th Century BC )
A human
While dreaming
is like a genius.
Brave and fearless
Like a genius.
_ Anonymous
There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in
the first group; there is less competition there.
_ Indira Gandhi ( 1917 - 1984 ) Born on 19 November 1917 in Allahabad, India
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, who's face is marred by dust and
sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, who knows
the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the
best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails
while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know
neither victory nor defeat.
_ Theodore Roosevelt ( 1858 - 1919 ) Born on 27 October 1858 in New York, New York
What if you slept?
And what if,
in your sleep
you dreamed?
And what if,
in your dream
you went to heaven
and there plucked
a strange and
beautiful flower?
And what if,
when you awoke,
you had the flower
in your hand?
_ Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( 1772 – 1834 ) Born 21 October 1772, in Ottery St. Mary in Devonshire, England
Familiar images of disaster came back to haunt me as I took my stance. I sliced the drive
and the sea breeze carried it into the rough. Shivas walked along beside me up the fairway,
and asked me what I was thinking. I told him about the awful thoughts. "They'll pass," he said,
"if ye daena' fight 'em. Come back to where'er ye were a minute ago. Wait 'em oot." Those
words were a great help - not only for the rest of the round but for my life ever since.
_Michael Murphy - "Golf in the Kingdom"
Any path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself and others, in dropping it if that's
what your heart tells you... Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times
as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question... Does this path
have heart? If it does the path is good; if it doesn't it is of no use.
_ Carlos Casteneda - "The Teachings of Don Juan"
Phaedrus had once called metaphysics "the high country of the mind" - an analogy to the high
country of mountain climbing, It takes a lot of effort to get there and more effort when you
arrive, but unless you can make the journey you are confined to one valley of thought all your
life.
_ Robert M. Persig - "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"
This fickle, unsteady mind, difficult to guard, difficult to control, the wise man makes
straight, as the fletcher the arrow.
By endurance, diligence, discipline and self-mastery, let the wise man make of himself an
island that no flood can overwhelm.
_Buddha ( 563? - 483? BC )
As you think, you travel: and as you love you attract. Your are today where thoughts have
brought you: you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you. You cannot escape the result
of your thoughts, but you can endure and learn... You will realize the vision (not the idle wish)
of your heart, be it base or beautiful...for you will always gravitate towards that which you,
secretly, most love. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain or rise with
your thoughts, you vision, your ideal. You will become as small as your controlling desire; as
great as your dominant aspiration.
_ James Allen
Money may be the husk of many things, but not the kernel. It brings your food, but not appetite;
medicine, but not health; acquaintances, but not friends; servants, but not loyalty; days of joy,
but not peace or happiness.
_ Henrik Ibsen
Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.
_ C.W. Ceran
A single conversation across the table with a wise man is worth a month's study of books.
_ Chinese Proverb
Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.
_ Henry Ford
When we have done our best, we should wait the result in peace.
_ J. Lubbock
I do the best I know how, the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing it to
the end.
If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me will not amount to
anything.
If the end brings me out all wrong, ten angles swearing I was right would make no difference.
_ Abraham Lincoln
The universe would not be created, not be destroyed; It would simply be. What place then for a
creator?
_ Stephen Hawking
So many worlds, so much to do, so little done, such things to be.
_ Alfred Lord Tennyson
Why worry?
There should be laughter after pain.
There should be sunshine after rain.
These things have always been the same.
So, why worry now?
_ Dire Straights
Well Its Alright
Well its alright
Riding around in the breeze
Well its alright
If you live the life you please
Well its alright
Doing the best you can
Well its alright
As long as long as you lend a hand
You can sit around waiting for the phone to ring
Waiting for someone to tell you everything
Sit around and wonder what tomorrow will bring
Maybe a diamond ring?
Well its alright
Even if they say your wrong
Well its alright
Sometimes you gotta be strong
Well its alright
As long as you got someone to lay with
Well its alright
Every day is just one day
Maybe some where down the road a ways
You'll think of me and wonder where I am these days
Maybe some where down the road when somebody plays
Purple Haze
Well its alright
Even when push comes to shove
Well its alright
If you got someone to love
Well its alright
Everything will work out fine
Well its alright
Were going to the end of the line
You don't have to be ashamed of the car I drive
I'm just glad to be here - happy to be alive
It don't matter if your by my side
I'm satisfied
Well its alright
Even if your old and gray
Well its alright
You still got something to say
Well its alright
Remember to live and let live
Well its alright
The best you can do is forgive
Well its alright
Riding around in the breeze
Well its alright
If you live the life you please
Well its alright
Even if the sun don't shine
Well its alright
We're going to the end of the line
_Tom Petty
_Roy Orbison
_Bob Dylan
_George Harrison
_Eric Burton
A Partial Register of Eternal Truths
This is it!
There are no hidden meanings.
You can not get there from here, and besides there is no place else to go.
We are all already dying, and we will be dead for a long time.
Nothing last.
There is no way of getting all you want.
You can't have anything unless you let go of it.
You only get to keep what you give away.
There is no particular reason why you lost out on some things.
The world is not necessarily just. Being good often does not pay off and there is
no compensation for misfortune. You have a responsibility to do your best nonetheless.
It is a random universe to which we bring meaning.
You don't really control anything.
You can't make anyone love you.
No one is any stronger or any weaker than anyone else.
Everyone is, in his own way, vulnerable.
There are no great men. If you have a hero, look again: you have diminished yourself in
some way.
Everyone lies, cheats, and pretends (yes, you too, and most certainly I myself).
All evil is potential vitality in need of transformation.
All of you is worth something.
Progress is an illusion.
Evil can be displaced but never eradicated, as all solutions breed new problems.
Yet it is necessary to keep on struggling toward a solution.
But is so very hard to be an on-your-own-take-care-of-yourself-
cause-there-is-no-one-else-to-do-it-for-you grown-up.
Childhood is a nightmare.
Each of us is ultimately alone.
The most important things, each man must do for himself.
Love is not enough, but it sure helps.
We have only ourselves, and one another. That may not be much, but that's all there is.
How strange, that so often, it all seems worth it.
We must live within the ambiguity of partial freedom, partial power, and partial knowledge.
All important decisions must be made on the basis of insufficient data.
Yet we are responsible for everything we do. No excuses will be accepted.
You can run, but you can't hide.
It is most important to run out of scapegoats.
We must learn the power of living with out our helplessness.
The only victory lies in surrender to oneself.
All of the significant battles are waged within the self.
Your are free to do whatever you like. You need only face the consequences.
What do you know...for sure...anyway?
Learn to forgive yourself, again and again and again and again...
_ Anonymous
So then,
this gritty trail of time,
resolves itself into a single grain
(fair fleeting moment)
which all our measures
(earth's bulk
and it's fictive tent of blue
the trained motes of mathematics,
clocks,
calendars,
the clasp of generations
touching skin to skin,
glut of brown streams
slicing through passive rock,
the ease of seasons over the land)
cannot compel
to stay.
Yet beyond measure there is memory,
that benevolent miser
hoarding through spending,
keeping through giving,
treasuring those moments
surrendered to a purpose
What ever's done is not wholly lost
And times's flow is stayed
not as we count its particles,
but as we trap them in meaning.
RULES FOR BEING HUMAN
1. You will receive a body. You may not like it or may hate it but it will be yours for the
entire period this time around.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life.
Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the
lessons or think them stupid.
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and
error and experimentation. The failed experiments are as much a part of
the process as the experiment that ultimately works.
4. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until it is learned.
When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does
not contain its lessons. If you are alive there are lessons to be learned.
6. There is no better place than here. When your there has become a here
you will simply obtain another there that will again look better than here.
7. Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something
about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate
about yourself.
8. What you make of life is up to you. You have all the tools and
resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is
yours.
9. The answers to life's questions lie inside of you. All you need do is
be quiet and calm and look and trust.
10. You will forget all of this!
Anonymous
AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN FIVE SHORT CHAPTERS
I.
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost...I am helpless
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
II.
I walk down the same street.
There is deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in the same place but is isn't my fault.
It takes a long time to get out.
III.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in...it's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
IV
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
V
I walk down another street.
by Portia Nelson
Born May 27, 1920
Died March 6, 2001
The End of My Pirate Days
The night is soft and silent, new moon at my door
There's nothing near as quiet as the light I'm looking for
And the last time it appeared he was laying next to me
Last time I felt this near to whispered ecstasy
And those who need adventure
They can sail the seven seas
And those who search for treasure
They must live on grander dreams
We rose and fell just like the tides, he filled my heart and soul
And I buried all my dreams for someone else to find
In my pirate days
This world is kinder to the kind who won't look back
They are the chosen few among us now - unbowed somehow
And one day he turned to me and before I took one breath
I would only see his shadow in what light was left
And those who need adventure
They can sail the seven seas
And those who search for treasure
They must live on grander dreams
If I've seen his face since then, its only been in dreams my friend
Since I came to the end of my pirate days
If I've called his name since then, its only been in dreams my friend
So I came to the end of my pirate days
_ Mary Chapin Carpenter
Behind it all
is surely an idea so simple,
so beautiful,
so compelling that when--
in a decade, a century,
or a millennium--
we grasp it,
we will all say to each other,
how could it have been otherwise?
How could we have been so stupid
for so long?
_John Archibald Wheeler - Physicist at Princeton ( 1911 - ) Jacksonville, Florida
We are continually faced with great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.
_ Anonymous
Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered you will never grow.
_ Ronald Osborn
All things are difficult before they are easy.
_ Anonymous
A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
_ Anonymous
Rob the church of her accessories and what remains behind?
_ Lao Tsu
Nobody in their right mind would volunteer for this duty!
_ Robert Quillman Rogers
There are only two constants in the universe - the speed of light and change.
One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks,
is worth whole years of those mean observance of paltry decorum, in which men steal though
existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honor or observation.
_ Sir Walter Scott
It is funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often
get it.
_ Sumerset Maugham
All things are difficult before they are easy.
_ John Norley
The years teach much which the days never know.
_ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can
look up and see their beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead.
_ Louisa May Alcott
The price of greatness is responsibility.
_ Sir Winston Churchill
A good marriage is that in which each appoints the other guardian of his solitude. Once the
realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue
to exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance
between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole and against a wide sky.
_ Rainer Maria Rilke
Pursue not the outer entanglements,
Dwell not in the inner void;
Be serene with the oneness of things,
And dualism vanishes by its self.
_ Seng-t'san
"There are some people who, when their past is threatened, get frightened of losing everything
they thought they had, and perhaps everything they thought they were as well. Now I don't feel
that one bit. The purpose of my life was to end the time I lived in."
From a speech by George Smiley:
"The Secret Pilgrim" by John Le Carre
This world is a comedy to those that think and a tragedy to those who feel.
_Horace Walpole
I Have A Dream
I have a dream a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me, I'll cross the stream
I have a dream a fantasy to help me through reality
And my destination makes it worth the while
Pushing through the darkness still another mile
I have a dream a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
_ ABBA
Return to Home Page