Apology and Explanation

OK, folks, I want to say "sorry" for my recent scarcity, and offer an explanation for my recent extended (and somewhat continuing) absence. Let me offer some "facts of (my) life."

1. I have a play script that must be done by December 31, 2008.
2. I need to finish a brochure that I signed up for months ago.
3. I need to submit an outline for a resource I proposed weeks ago
4. I have a manuscript that's been ready to be shipped for almost a year.
5. I'm taking a university writing class.
6. I have a new baby grandson!



Sooo....

I'll get here when I can. Please be patient with me.

Sorry for the "gap"--I didn't fall off the edge of the world!  With everyone out of school things got a little crazy, but now I'm back.  So, to make up for lost time, let's start things back up with a "doozy"!

Your spouse's sex life with you is the only legitimate one they have; what are you doing to make it the best it can be, so it's more appealing than the other options? —Unknown

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have a higher and greater standard of principle. Washington could not lie. I can lie but I won't. —Mark Twain

You can tell the size of your God by looking at the size of your worry list. The longer your list, the smaller your God. —Unknown

I believe humans get a lot done, not because we're smart, but because we have thumbs so we can make coffee. —Flash Rosenberg

A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me, I'm afraid of widths. —Steven Wright

I cannot find language of sufficient energy to convey my sense of the sacredness of private integrity. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pride is what we have. Vanity is what others have. —Unknown

An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications. --Robert A Heinlein

Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. —Reinhold Niebuhr

Public opinion is what people think other people are thinking. —Unknown

He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words. —Elbert Hubbard

Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience. —Unknown

Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb, but how well you bounce. —Unknown

Many people will walk in and out of your life. But only true friends will leave footprints in your heart. —Eleanor Roosevelt

To keep your home life brimming
With love in the marriage cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it.
Whenever you're right - shut up!!
—Ogden Nash

On the sixth day, God created the platypus. And God said, "Let's see the evolutionists try and figure this one out." —Unknown

I WAS AWAY AT CAMP...NOW I'M BACK!

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic. —Frank Pepper

Life is bigger than this moment. Life is shorter than you think. —Mike Hofer

Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool. —Unknown

You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down. —Annie Dillard

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling 'darkness' on the wall of his cell. —C.S. Lewis

If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer. —Yogi Berra

A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a joke or worried to death by a frown on the right person's brow. —Charles Brower

The trouble with doing nothing is that you never know when you are finished. —Unknown

If you fell down yesterday, stand up today. —H.G. Wells

The reason you close your eyes when you dream, kiss, or pray is because the best things in life are not seen with the eyes, but with the heart. —Unknown

The full acting out of the self's surrender to God therefore demands pain: this action, to be perfect, must be done from the pure will to obey, in the absence, or in the teeth, of inclination. —C.S. Lewis

God understands our prayers even when we can't find the words to say them. —Unknown

Age appears best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. —Francis Bacon

Good cheer is something more than faith in the future, it is gratitude for the past and joy in the present. —Unknown

Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves. —Albert Einstein

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail."

Mankind's greatest gift, also its greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our choices built from love or from fear. —Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Your sons weren't made to like you. That's what grandchildren are for. —Jane Smiley

Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees. —Victor Hugo

The clear sighted do not rule the world, but they sustain and console it. —Agnes Repplier

He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense. —Joseph Conrad

Only choose in marriage a man whom you would choose as a friend if he were a woman. —Joseph Joubert

Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before, how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever.... —Isak Dinesen

Never cease loving a person, and never give up hope for him, for even the prodigal son who had fallen most low, could still be saved; the bitterest enemy and also he who was your friend could again be your friend; love that has grown cold can kindle. —Soren Kierkegaard

This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.
The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
—Jeremiah the Prophet? (Lamentations 3:21-23

When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not. —Mark Twain

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. —Albert Einstein

There remains for us only the very narrow way, often extremely difficult to find, of living every day as though it were our last, and yet living in faith and responsibility as though there were to be a great future. —Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Intellect takes us along in the battle of life to a certain limit, but at the crucial moment it fails us. Faith transcends reason. It is when the horizon is the darkest and human reason is beaten down to the ground that faith shines brightest and comes to our rescue. —Mohandas Gandhi

It is easy enough to be pleasant
When life flows by like a song,
But the man worth while
Is the one who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong.
For the test of the heart is trouble,
And it always comes with the years,
And the smile that is worth
The praises of earth
Is the smile that shines through the tears.
—Irish Saying

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. —Martin Luther King, Jr.

Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him out to the public. —Winston Churchill

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius--and a lot of courage--to move in the opposite direction. —E. F. Schumacker

I waited patiently for the LORD; He turned to me and heard my cry. —King David of Israel (Psalm 40:1)

I don't believe in Christian art or music...I believe in great art. If you are an artist, your job is to do great art and you don't need to tack on the word Christian. It's already great. —Rob Bell

The purpose of education is to keep a culture from being drowned in senseless repetitions, each of which claims to offer a new insight. —Harold Rosenberg

Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just. —Blaise Pascal

Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair. —Rollo May

God will not suffer man to have a knowledge of things to come; for if he had prescience of his prosperity, he would be careless; and if understanding of his adversity, he would be despairing and senseless. —Saint Augustine

The most evident token and apparent sign of true wisdom is a constant and unconstrained rejoicing. —Michel de Montaigne

This is as true in everyday life as it is in battle: we are given one life and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act, and in acting, to live. —Omar Bradley

It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion. —Anatole France

Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion. —Florence Nightingale

Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature. —Saint Augustine

The right time is ANY time that one is still so lucky as to have. —Henry James

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month. —Teddy Roosevelt

I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiousity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life. —Eleanor Roosevelt

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival. —C.S. Lewis

To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there. —Kofi Annan

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. —Jack London

Most of life is routine - dull and grubby, but routine is the momentum that keeps a man going. If you wait for inspiration you'll be standing on the corner after the parade is a mile down the street. —Ben Nicholas

A man desires praise that he may be reassured, that he may be quit of his doubting of himself; he is indifferent to applause when he is confident of success. —Alec Waugh

No greater nor more affectionate honor can be conferred on an American than to have a public school named after him. —Herbert Hoover

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love. —Washington Irving

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak. —Thomas Carlyle

A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride. —C.S. Lewis

The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish. —Robert Louis Stevenson

Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God. —Arnold Toynbee

Solitude is such a potential thing. We hear voices in solitude, we never hear in the hurry and turmoil of life; we receive counsels and comforts, we get under no other condition . . . —Amelia E. Barr

Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is. —Maxim Gorky

The stormy March has come at last,
With wind, and cloud, and changing skies;
I hear the rushing of the blast,
That through the snowy valley flies.
—William Cullen Bryant

Never wear anything that panics the cat. —P J O'Rourke

The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it. —Flannery O'Connor

The greatest discovery is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind. —William James

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come. —Joseph Campbell

The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion. —Doris Lessing

Words can sting like anything, but silence breaks the heart. —Phyllis McGinley

I know the world is filled with troubles and many injustices. But reality is as beautiful as it is ugly. I think it is just as important to sing about beautiful mornings as it is to talk about slums. I just couldn't write anything without hope in it. —Oscar Hammerstein II

As for accomplishments, I just did what I had to do as things came along. —Eleanor Roosevelt

Every man who has shown the world the way to beauty, to true culture, has been a rebel, a 'universal' without patriotism, without home, who has found his people everywhere. —Chaim Potok

The Rune of St. Patrick

At Tara today in this fateful hour
I place all Heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And fire with all the strength it hath,
And lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness
All these I place,
By God's almighty help and grace,
Between myself and the powers of darkness.

If you made a list of the reasons why any couple got married, and another list of the reasons for their divorce, you'd have...a lot of overlapping. —Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

Heredity is what sets the parents of a teenager wondering about each other. —Dr. Laurence J. Peter

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness. —William Orville Douglas

Remember one thing about democracy. We can have anything we want and at the same time, we always end up with exactly what we deserve. —Edward Albee

It is no little wisdom for you to keep yourself in silence and in good peace when evil words are spoken to you, and to turn your heart to God and not to be troubled with the judgment of others. —Thomas a Kempis

If I knew what I was so worried about, I wouldn't worry so much. —Unknown

Worry not about the possible troubles of the future; for if they come, you are but anticipating and adding to their weight; and if they do not come, your worry is useless; and in either case it is weak and in vain, and a distrust of God's providence. —Hugh Blair

Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. —Gene Fowler

Much wisdom often goes with fewest words. —Sophocles

Most people are quite happy to suffer in silence, if they are sure everybody knows they are doing it. —Unknown

Were I to await perfection, my book would never be finished. —Chinese Proverb

There are two kinds of people in the world—givers and takers. The takers eat better. The givers sleep better. —probably Danny Thomas, indefinite attribution

The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike. —Ralph Ellison

I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like child stringing beads in kindergarten, - happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another. —Brenda Ueland

Reality is the only word in the English language that should always be used in quotes. —Unknown

I perceived that to express those impressions, to write that essential book, which is the only true one, a great writer does not, in the current meaning of the word, invent it, but, since it exists already in each one of us, interprets it. The duty and the task of a writer are those of an interpreter. —Marcel Proust

Make them laugh, make them cry, and back to laughter. What do people go to the theatre for? An emotional exercise. . . . I am a servant of the people. I have never forgotten that. —Mary Pickford

To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can. —Ernest Hemingway

Many men build as cathedrals were built, the part nearest the ground finished; but that part which soars toward heaven, the turrets and the spires, forever incomplete. —Henry Ward Beecher

There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other. —Douglas H. Everett

A "Two-fer"

I believe that God made me for a purpose... for China. But He also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure.... To win is to honor Him. —Eric Liddell

I believe that God made me for a purpose.... But He also made me funny, and when I create laughter, I feel His pleasure.... To make people laugh is to honor Him. —Me

Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it. —Greg Anderson

Rudeness is not hypocritical the way politeness often is. —Charlotte Bronte (in Jane Eyre)

My subject enlarges itself, becomes methodized and define, and the whole, though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so that I can survey it, like a fine picture or a beautiful statute, at a glance. —Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

You get whatever accomplishment you are willing to declare. —Georgia O'Keeffe

Do not love your version of peace. Love other people and love God. Hate tyranny, hate prejudice, hate greed, and hate violence—but hate them in yourself, and not in others. —Thomas Merton

Marriage is three parts love and seven parts forgiveness of sins. ~Langdon Mitchell

Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. —A. A. Milne (Christopher Robin to Pooh)

What is uttered from the heart alone, will win the hearts of others to your own. —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

If life is just a stage, then we are all running around ad-libbing, with absolutely no clue what the plot is. Maybe that's why we don't know whether it's a comedy or tragedy. —Bill Watterson

If I'd had some set idea of a finish line, don't you think I would have crossed it years ago? —Bill Gates

Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators. —Albert Camus

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. —Abraham Maslow

You become a writer because you need to become a writer - nothing else. —Grace Paley

Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary. —Cecil Beaton

The great advantage of being a writer is that you can spy on people. You're there, listening to every word, but part of you is observing. Everything is useful to a writer, you see -- every scrap, even the longest and most boring of luncheon parties. —Graham Greene

Perhaps it is the language that chooses the writers it needs, making use of them so that each might express a tiny part of what it is. —Jose Saramago

A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others. —William Faulkner

Those who are in the Lord never say goodbye for the last time. —Scottish Proverb

Why can't we get all the people together in the world that we really like and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn't work. Someone would leave. Someone always leaves. Then we would have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes. I know what I need. I need more hellos. — Charles M. Schulz