REFLECTIONS

I do not believe in people telling others of their faith, especially
with a view to conversion. Faith does not admit of telling. But when
it is lived it becomes self-propagating.
~ Mohandas K. Gandhi ~

"Darwin has been the inspiration of my life and work, joining my father and Joe DiMaggio in the select trio of men who most profoundly influenced my life. Had Darwin been a cold fish, or a nasty, exploitative man, we might be less attracted to him, though we would still admire the power of his thought. Yet he was a person whose basic kindness and decency defy the numerous attempts of detractors to demean or defame him....Darwin's humanity, with all its foibles, shines through in his life and writing."
Stephen Jay Gould

"That which causes philosophers to be regarded half-distrustfully and half-mockingly, is not the oft-repeated discovery how innocent they are...but that there is not enough honest dealing with them, whereas they all raise a loud and virtuous outcry when the problem of truthfulness is even hinted at in the remotest manner."

"It has gradually become clear to me what every great philosophy up till now has consisted of - namely, the confession of its originator, and a species of involuntary and unconscious autobiography; and moreover that the moral (or immoral) purpose in every philosophy has constituted the true vital germ out of which the entire plant has always grown."

"To live - is not that just endeavouring to be otherwise than this Nature? Is not living valuing, preferring, being unjust, being limited, endeavouring to be different?"

- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), Beyond Good and Evil (1885)

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
--- Margaret Mead

What would happen if we began to take matters into our own hands regarding our own lives and actions? . . . What if we learned to slow down, simplify, savor and make the best of our lives with a little less?
-- Catherine Sundberg

Beauty is before me and beauty is behind me. Above and below me hovers
the beautiful. I am surrounded by it. I am immersed in it. In my
youth I am aware of it. And in old age I shall walk quietly the beautiful
trail.
-Navajo Prayer from Earth Prayers, by Elizabeth Roberts, San
Francisco: Harper and Row, 1991

"Never abandon the truth, even if it is against you."
--- Imam Ali


"Seek Truth for Authority, not Authority for Truth."
--- Elizabeth Cady Stanton


"Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities
has the power to make you commit atrocities."
--- Voltaire

"Sapere aude!"
(Have the courage to know)
--- Homer

Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.
--- Anon

We come together in fellowship. We are apart but united in loving
commitment to one another. Let us circle this globe, our fragile, island
home, in worship.


We summon ourselves from the demands and delights of
the daily round
from the dirty dishes and unwaxed floors,
from the unmowed grass and untrimmed bushes,
from all incompletenesses and not-yet startednesses,
from the unholy and unresolved.

We summon oursleves to attend to our vision
of peace and justice,
of cleanliness and health,
of the lovely and the holy,
of who we are and what we can do.

We summon the power of tradition and the exhilaration
of newness
the wisdom of the ages and the knowing of the very young
We summon beauty, eloquence, poetry, music to be the
bearers of our dreams.

We would open our eyes,
our ears,
our minds,
our hearts
to the amplest dimensions of life.

We rejoice in the manifold promises and possibilities.

Gorden B. McKeeman
from Rejoice Together, collected by Helen R. Pickett
Skinner House Books, Boston

He who walks joyfully in rank and file has already earned my contempt.
--- Albert Einstein

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dryrot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
--- Jack London

The most powerful liberal instinct is a grating hunger for more freedom, more justice, more fairness, more inclusion, more fulfillment for more of earth’s creatures.
-- Jack Mendelsohn

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
--- Abraham Lincoln

The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
--- Jean Paul Sartre