REFLECTIONS

"An unexamined faith is not worth having."
-- James Luther Adams

You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.
-- Robin Williams

Somewhere somebody's shooting at somebody that's hiding in a hole,
hoping
that somewhere in the world somebody's singing, somebody's playing, and
life is
worth living.

-- Arlo Guthrie

The great tragedy of Science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by
an ugly fact.
-- Thomas H. Huxley

The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions
grow where only one grew before.
-- Thorstein Veblen

Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching.
Satchel Paige

Seasons

It's that time special time of year for many
Gifts and songs and wonder are plenty

Colors brights and life anew
Holiday cheer and friendship true

Yet for some, the pain of sorrow and
Not knowing what will come tomorrow

In the wake of mourning a child's death
Grief robs the joy and steals their breath

Moment by moment they walk the path
Trying to survive grief's grip of wrath

Be gentle with them this time of year
Whom death has crossed, their cries please hear

Hearts are broken 'neath sorrow and tears
Today, tomorrow, and all of their years

Offer them gifts of kindness and amity
As they face each day of boundless calamity

Light a candle, say a prayer for those who mourn
Who cannot rejoice, their lives now torn

Remember their child and honor their pain
Share the burden and help them sustain

This holiday season, the best gifts you can share
Are your heart and your love, your solace and care.


Joanne Cacciatore-Garard, (c) 2003

Faith, it seems to me, is not the holding of certain dogmas; it is simply openness and readiness of the heart to believe any truth which God may show.
-- Margaret Deland

But the greatest menace to our civilization today is the conflict between giant organized systems of self-righteousness -- each system only too delighted to find that the other is wicked -- each only too glad that the sins give it the pretext for still deeper hatred and animosity.
-- Herbert Butterfield

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures
the disease.
-- Voltaire

Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the
streets after them.
-- Bill Vaughan

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed,
courage to change the things which should be changed,
and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
-- Reinhold Niebuhr

Know you Silence, my friend?
It is the dumbness of the tongue when the
heart would be heard;
It is the muteness of the lips when the spirit
speaks loudest.
It is the uttering of the unutterable.

-- Madeline Mason-Manheim, "Silence"

As a young man I followed a mentor when he said,
"Doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs."

In recent years I have come to
" Doubt my beliefs and believe my doubts."
Warren Thompson

Because I have confidence in the power of truth and in the spirit, I
believe
in the future of mankind. Affirmation of the world and of life
contains
within itself an optimistic willing and hoping which can never be lost.
It is,
therefore, never afraid to face the dismal reality and to see it as it
really is.

-- Albert Schweitzer

The reason lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place is that the
same place isn't there the second time.
-- Willie Tyler

The time: near future...

Operator: "Thank you for calling Pizza Hut. May I have your..."

Customer: "Hi, I'd like to order."

Operator: "May I have your NIDN first, sir?"

Customer: "My National ID Number, yeah, hold on, eh, it's
6102049998-45-54610."

Operator: "Thank you, Mr. Sheehan. I see you live at 1742 Meadowland
Drive,
and the phone number's 494-2366. Your office number over at Lincoln
Insurance is 745-2302 and your cell number's 266-2566. Which number are
you
calling from, sir?"

Customer: "Huh? I'm at home. Where d'ya get all this information?"

Operator: "We're wired into the system, sir."

Customer: (Sighs) "Oh, well, I'd like to order a couple of your
All-Meat
Special pizzas..."

Operator: "I don't think that's a good idea, sir."

Customer: "Whaddya mean?"

Operator: "Sir, your medical records indicate that you've got very high
blood pressure and extremely high cholesterol. Your National Health
Care
provider won't allow such an unhealthy choice."

Customer: "Damn. What do you recommend, then?"

Operator: "You might try our low-fat Soybean Yogurt Pizza. I'm sure
you'll
like it"

Customer: "What makes you think I'd like something like that?"

Operator: "Well, you checked out 'Gourmet Soybean Recipes' from your
local
library last week, sir. That's why I made the suggestion."

Customer: "All right, all right. Give me two family-sized ones, then.
What's the damage?"

Operator: "That should be plenty for you, your wife and your four kids,
sir. The 'damage,' as you put it, heh, heh, comes $49.99."

Customer: "Lemme give you my credit card number."

Operator: "I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid you'll have to pay in cash.
Your
credi! t card balance is over its limit."

Customer: "I'll run over to the ATM and get some cash before your
driver
gets here."

Operator: "That won't work either, sir. Your checking account's
overdrawn."

Customer: "Never mind. Just send the pizzas. I'll have the cash ready.
How
long will it take?"

Operator: "We're running a little behind, sir. It'll be about 45
minutes,
sir. If you're in a hurry you might want to pick 'em up while you're
out
getting the cash, but carrying pizzas on a motorcycle can be a little
awkward."

Customer: "How the hell do you know I'm riding a bike?"

Operator: "It says here you're in arrears on your car payments, so your
car
got repo'ed. But your Harley's paid up, so I just assumed that you'd be
using it."

Customer: "@#%/$@&?#!"

Operator: "I'd advise watching your language, sir. You've already got a
July 2006 conviction for cussing out a cop."

Customer: (Speechless)

Operator: "Will there be anything else, sir?"

Customer: "No, nothing. oh, yeah, don't forget the two free liters of
Coke
your ad says I get with the pizzas."

Operator: "I'm sorry sir, but our ad's exclusionary clause prevents us
from
offering free soda to diabetics."

The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between
the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we
can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.
-- Andre Malraux

Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say that it makes
him more pleasing to others.
-- Samuel Johnson

Reports that say something hasn't happened are always interesting to
me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we
know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we
know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown
unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know.
-- Don Rumsfield

Rest not! Life is sweeping by;
go and dare before you die.
Something mighty and sublime,
leave behind to conquer time.
-- Goethe (1749-1832)

"When I walk to the edge of all the light I have and take that step into the
darkness of the unknown I believe one of two things will happen. There will
be something solid for me to stand on, or I will be taught to fly."
S. Martin Edges

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things
and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil
things, that takes religion.
-- Steven Weinberg, quoted in The New York Times, April 20, 1999

A Story from the Buddhist tradition: Rev. Al Embry

Once master Hofaku called his monks together and said: “This last week my energy has been draining - no cause for worry. It is just that death is near.”

A monk asked: ”You are about to die! What does it mean? We will go on living. And what does that mean?

“They are both the way of things,” the master replied.

“But how can I understand two such different states?”

Hofaku answered: “When it rains it pours,” and then calmly died

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing
himself.
-- Leo Tolstoy

The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue
happiness you'll never find it.
-- C. P. Snow

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
-- Voltaire

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt