ODDS and INSights
Be the person who acknowledges some truth and honor in an opponent instead of distorting words to generate delusional windmills to attack. Otherwise, your credibility, honor, and respect are at risk.
****
A thought left in the mind is doomed to an early, lonely death with no chance to mature.
****
Others may show you a path to understanding, but only your curiosity will force the hike.
****
It took all of his energy just to be average; but that was good enough.
****
Humans can’t think beyond the primitive unless they read— and cannot refine their thoughts unless they write.
****
If you gain happiness by denying it to others, you should pursue something else.
****
Those who do not know the most straightforward fundamentals should stay out of the business of guiding society.
****
I’m uncertain if it is possible to maintain any degree of religious faith without rejecting some objective truths.
****
Shared aspirations, not commandments, best guide a free society.
****
Maps are useful to reach a destination, but they are not the destination.
****
Praying does not free us of the responsibility of reason.
****
I’m starting to believe we seek the fight more than the resolution, and damn the consequences.
****
We cannot improve the past, no matter how hard we try, but the quality of the future is inexorably linked to the quality of effort we make now.
****
The most productive fight you will have is not with the other guy. You must first wrestle with yourself to understand if your goal is to reach a destination or just to fight.
****
Life is best lived in a dynamic equilibrium with a purpose, otherwise you’re just wishy-washy, stubborn, or dead.
****
No matter what the next alluring “I-will-solve-your-problems” promise brings, keep your life in repair the best you can; even a rising tide cannot lift a leaky boat for long.
****
It takes a Herculean effort to have a 30% chance of making anything 30% better. The good news is maintaining a good society only takes 30% of the population to make the effort. Our our contribution as the average person is to identify those who have the skills and desire to make the effort 100% of the time.
****
We should be eternally thankful that an elite cabal of educated opportunists designed this country. If “we the people” wrote it, the Declaration of Independence and Constitution would not have laid the uniquely strong foundation of human aspirations upon which the Statue of Liberty stands so proudly as a gateway.
****
We all want to win. Life is like baseball; with minimum effort, you will win and lose one-third of the games. What you do for the remaining one-third makes all the difference.
****
We might be right as rain, but most rain is unproductive because it falls on the ocean. But if we are wrong, we risk generating a flood of discontent.
****
Speak easy, sip moderately, and suppose big.
****
Your bucket of excuses is overflowing.
****
Nothing increases the price of admission like drama.
****
Many of today’s health problems are due to the unintended consequences of living longer, being around more people, and having ready access to an overabundance of food. Ironically, these things are best controlled by the patient, not the physician.
****
If you don’t see things in the light of reality, you are either delusional or a quantum physicist.
****
Yes, Virginia, the Moon rotates on its axis. And it’s not always in the night sky. And the far side gets as much sunlight as the near side. Unfortunately, using our naked eyes only, nothing in the sky can be seen to rotate. If so, civilization would be 5,000 years ahead of where we are now.
****
After 10,000 years, it’s time for a new Fertile Crecent.
****
I don’t care if you are a flat-earther, climate change denier, or a climate change proponent; but if you think it gets hotter in the summer because the earth gets closer to the sun–we need to talk.
****
Most people are sane until they gather in a large group of like-minded folks. We live best in small tribes of accountability.
****
None of us can escape the consequences of irresponsibility. Please do not kick the anthill; the chaos is inconsistent with a prepared mind. Strive to be better, not to conquer. Then, strive to be good enough to make a positive difference in those endeavors for which you have some responsibility.
****
I do feel sorry for all the displaced indigenous people, but they are human, so if the roles were reversed, they would have been the conquerors. However, there was one time in history when one group of people had the power to destroy all adversaries. And they chose not to do so.
****
We have the right to do nothing, but we cannot escape the consequences of irresponsibility.
****
Wow! All these years, I misspelled “aMEerica fIrst.”
****
If you are reluctant to act, at least lower the activation energy.
****
Ironically, war compels us to realize that survival is a common goal.
****
We worship the seldom achieved “better Angels of our nature,” so we imagine a “perfect” God in our imperfect image.
****
Don’t look for the answer before you know the question.
****
“Truth” is reality illuminated by personal expectations.
****
An English teacher once told me that precision tools are dangerous in the hands of a novice.
****
Time is an allusion caused by memory, which is nothing more than a perception produced by poorly etched scratches of the putrid, acidic residue of a decaying consciousness, meant to prepare one for the next now.
****
I’m proud to be smart enough to know I don’t know everything.
****
The fastest way to lose the benefits of a good idea is to take it to absurd extremes.
****
He made no effort to free himself from the comfortable web of faith, cheerfully waiting for the All-Mighty to devour and reassemble him into paradise.
****
In my universe, “God did it” is not good enough. If you look and listen closely, you can start to understand how “God” did it. God is self-confident and perhaps benevolent enough not to be offended when we ask “how” and seek the answer. “God” does not care whether we know how, so we are on our own to find out.
****
School primarily exercises short-term memory; true learning is each individual’s responsibility.
****
To some degree, higher education evolved into daycare centers for young adults waiting for us Boomers to retire. The extent of that degree is debatable, but it is too extensive.
****
Mostly, my responsibility was to stay out of the way and out of trouble. Mostly, I succeeded.
****
I was raised in an environment where testing a hypothesis was considered virtuous, and seeking data to prove oneself right was considered wrong. It seems that the former is no longer popular. To the questioner, yes, I admit it, I yearn for the scholarly environment of academia.
****
Nothing is amazing about my mind. It just occasionally wanders to amazing places.
****
‘Tis the season to welcome reason. “We tell children about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy for reasons we think emotionally sound, but then disabuse them of these myths before they’re grown. Why retract? Because their well-being as adults depends on them knowing the world as it really is. We worry, and for good reason, about adults who still believe in Santa Claus." —Carl Sagan
****
Dorothy was color-blind before the storm, so how did she know which road to follow?
****
After decades of observations, I'm convinced that intelligence, wealth, and happiness are increased only by searching for solutions to the unintended consequences of past solutions.
****
The circle of life: after raining cats and dogs, the velociraptors (hawks) appear. I bring the dogs inside.
****
The best minds recognize that a good idea taken to extremes will lose some measure of virtue. Anyone who does not openly and genuinely wrestle with moral dilemmas and fails to acknowledge the adverse consequences of draconian measures is neither ethical nor deserves the responsibility of leadership.
****
It has come to my attention that there are six levels of trophy recognition.
1. Gold
2. Silver
3. Bronze
4. Participant
5. You showed up.
6. Well, your mother still loves you.
****
No doubt, some level of doubt in what we believe is superior to the bumper-sticker dogma of certainty.
****
By writing a dialogue between his “Heart” and his “Head,” Thomas Jefferson cleverly described an internal conflict between what he desired and what he could control. It got me thinking that moral folks have these internal debates to develop solutions most likely to have the most favorable outcomes with the least collateral damage. But when the debate is with our “Heart” and someone else’s “Head” (or vice versa), no solutions are available because the goals are rarely the same. I’ll debate this thought with myself later.
****
While all people should matter, no one should matter too much. But having a hero when you’re a kid is highly recommended.
****
Proposed Ordinance: Every boutique will have a small lounge and large-screen TV to accommodate husbands.