Home » Posts tagged 'Wisdom' (Page 44)
Tag Archives: Wisdom
Life is no different
Can I possibly count how many things I desperately wanted that I later rejoiced not having gotten?
Can I possibly remember how many things I thought I needed that I would have been better off without?
Can I possibly imagine how different my life would be if all my wishes had come true?
In medicine, the cures are often more painful than the afflictions. Life is no different.
Proverbial Beauty Available NOW on Amazon
My new book, Proverbial Beauty: Secrets for Success and Happiness from the Wisdom of the Ages, is spotlighted today on Celtic Lady’s Reviews and is now available on Amazon.com.
Take a look, and tell a friend.
The Art of Moving Forward
All around us is deception. Activity masquerades as action. Desire masquerades as direction. Preoccupation masquerades as love.
The Hebrew word yoda means knowledge. It also means intimacy.
Without knowledge, there can be no intimacy. Without closeness, there can be no knowledge. Without trust, there can be no closeness.
Speak Truth to Powers
How refreshing that there are people like Kirsten Powers in the world.
In her new book, the outspoken, unapologetic liberal Democrat has taken aim at the militant search-and-destroy tactics employed by many liberals to shut down civil discourse and bully ideological opponents into submission.
Not surprisingly, many on the left have turned their attacks upon Ms. Powers and her book, proving her point by doing exactly what she accuses them of doing.
The intellectual laziness of groupthink lies at the heart of the deep divisions that are tearing this country apart. If more people would listen — listen to each other, and listen to Ms. Powers’s message — America might start turning back toward a culture of problem-solving and away from character assassination and political dogma.
The Answer is in the Stars
From Symmetry Magazine:
According to theory, the big bang should have created matter and antimatter in equal amounts. When matter and antimatter meet, they annihilate, leaving nothing but energy behind. So in principle, none of us should exist.
But we do. And as far as physicists can tell, it’s only because, in the end, there was one extra matter particle for every billion matter-antimatter pairs. Physicists are hard at work trying to explain this asymmetry.
Here’s a nice follow up to yesterday’s post, Embrace Mystery and Discover Joy. Scientists love to tell us how they’ve decoded the secrets of the universe. Then they tell us that we shouldn’t even exist.
“The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.”
~J.B.S. Haldane
Fighting for whose rights?
Here we go again.
Socrates gave up his life for the ideal of pure wisdom. Galileo was threatened with torture for his commitment to scientific truth. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison for his campaign to end apartheid.
And now, attorney Steven Wise is seeking to be the next torchbearer for virtue and justice by seeking legal personhood for two chimpanzees currently deprived of their primatial integrity by incarceration in the anatomy department of New York’s Stony Brook University. Mr. Wise has even found a judge willing to hear his case.
This is a natural outgrowth of our collective obsession with rights and entitlement which has, proportionally, shrouded our notion of personal responsibility. A healthy culture recognizes that it has a moral obligation to show compassion to all living creatures. But as the very concept of morality flickers and fades from social consciousness, only the assertion of rights prevents the rapid disintegration of society.
And as we lose our sense of responsibility, the distinction between man and animals grows harder to define until, ultimately, it all but disappears. In California, the “rights” of a little fish trump the welfare of humans: crops wither in arid fields during the worst drought on record as the state dumps trillions of gallons of fresh water into the ocean.
It’s worth noting that in 1933, two years before the Nuremberg Laws stripped German Jews of both civil and human rights, the Nazi government passed some of history’s most progressive laws for the protection of animals, legislation considered emblematic of the highest moral values of a people.
Elevating animals to the level of human beings inevitably results in human beings acting worse than animals.
Reflect the reality you want
If you want to be happy, let happy people shape your mood.
If you want to be successful, let successful people show you the way.
If you want to be wise, walk in the ways of wisdom.
If you want to be appreciated, show appreciation.
If you want to be respected, act worthy of respect.
If you want to be loved, love others.
If you want to make a difference, learn right from wrong, and have the courage to do what’s right.
Send us your email, and we will send you the first four chapters of Proverbial Beauty – free!
Enjoy the little things
Children grow up. Friends move away. Parents pass on.
We miss out on sunsets, and sunrises; we miss out on walks in the woods and float trips on the river. And we can’t even remember the reason for the fits and fights and pity parties that seemed so justified at the time.
It should be obvious what’s really important. But we find so many ways to rationalize the irrational.
Stubborn, aren’t we?
So smile more, give more compliments, hug your kids, call your parents, take time out for friends.
Sure, it’s all a cliche. But after all, don’t cliches become cliches because they’re true?
Bad Hair Day at CSI
Since 2012, the FBI has been reviewing some 2600 convictions from the ’80s and ’90s that depended on hair analysis. With 268 cases reviewed so far, more than 95% have been called into question, according to NewScientist.
This doesn’t mean that science is unreliable. Rather, it reinforces the well-known computer adage of GIGO — garbage in, garbage out. In other words, technology is only as good as the people using it.
So when it comes to understanding the origins of the universe, the evolution of man, the nature of human psychology, or the changing climate patterns of our planet, perhaps a bit more humility is in order before we jump to conclusions that new discoveries might force us to reverse tomorrow or the next day.
Our world is a complicated place. Instead of insisting that we have everything figured out, let’s watch the sun rise and listen to the rain fall while we enjoy the mystery of it all.
Speak your mind… or not
How much damage is caused talking about other people? And for what? Usually to make ourselves feel superior at the expense of others.
And what if it’s true? So what if it is? If there’s no benefit, why say it?
How much time do we spend talking about the obvious or the irrelevant? The weather? The economy? Last night’s episode of Letterman?
As an icebreaker, small talk serves a purpose. But if it becomes a staple, if it leads nowhere except the next inanity, wouldn’t we be better off with silence?
Of course, that would leave us alone with our own thoughts, and that can be a pretty scary place to be.
Yonason Goldson 