#42

Anything that happens, happens.
Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen.
Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again.
It doesn’t necessarily do it in chronological order, though.
       ~ Douglas Adams

.

Most people do not comprehend,
[no matter how] they encounter such things,
nor do they understand what they learn;
they believe only themselves.
       ~ Heraclitus

.

Every thought is a seed.
If you plant crab apple, don’t count on harvesting Golden Delicious.
      ~ Bill Meyer

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All the lessons of history in four sentences:
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with power.
The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small.
The bee fertilizes the flower it robs.
When it is dark enough, you can see stars.

       ~ Charles A. Beard

In the spirit of Thirty and Thirty-Five comes the following awesome, beautiful, and creative web of thoughts that occupy my brain.

No matter.

I’m not patient enough to write poetry or prose, so I’ll just count down after Futurama.

Don’t you worry about life, the universe, and everything; let me worry about blank…

42. We believe in the interconnectedness of all things.

41. Everything is about inclusion.

40. Everything is everythang.

39. Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.

38. As human beings, our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

37. Let it go. This too shall pass.

36. SIMPLIFY.

35. Lessons are repeated until they are learned.

34. The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

33. Reflect on happiness.

32. People are very bad at predicting what will make us happy.

31. There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them.

30. We are feedback loops. We are the stories we tell ourselves.

29. Love is when you open your heart to pain.

28. To get over grief, be there for someone else’s grief.

27. Kittie heaven is mousie hell.

26. Bird is the word!

25. The ride does not require an explanation. Just occupants.

24. It’s not going to stop till you wise up.

23. Character is destiny.

22. Reflection creates identity.

21.
You can do anything.

20. We can change the world with a pen and paper. We keep waiting, waiting.

19. Starting is hard.

18. We’ll see.

17. Life is… delicious ambiguity.

16. Beware drift. Do what you love!

15. True happiness comes from within.

14. Get yourself a giant panda! (Super kawaii!)

13. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.

12. That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.

11. It goes to 11. (Be sure to read through to Andy Weir’s story, “The Egg”!)

10. Life is like business. It’s 20 percent what happens to you, and 80 percent how you respond.

9. 80 percent of success is showing up.

8. Our attitudes produce our luck.

7. Love more, fear less.

6. Be grateful for every breath.

5. Be who you are, as hard as you can.

4. Be here now.

3. Be excellent.

2. There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.

1. Only kindness matters in the end.

********* …enlightenment… *********

 

 

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Love more, fear less.

If I could tell the world just one thing, it would be:

Love more. Fear less.

Obvious to me. Amazing to others.

“There is no future. There is no past. Do you see? Time is simultaneous, an intricately structured jewel that humans insist on viewing one edge at a time, when the whole design is visible in every facet.”

~ Watchmen

“I will do today what you won’t, so tomorrow I can do what you can’t.”

~ Anonymous

“I do not much care for that man… I must get to know him better.”

~ Abraham Lincoln

“If there is no enemy on the inside, the enemy on the outside can do us no harm.”

~ African Proverb

“Our greatest problems often yield our greatest breakthroughs… fierce frustration is a precondition for a tremendous triumph.”

~ @CoryBooker

Recently I added favorites among Convos containing quotes…

Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion. ~ Muhammed Ali

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. ~ Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want. ~ Randy Pausch

There are no shortcuts. NONE. ~ Mark Cuban

Do something so hard you become great in the process. ~ xkcd

Any 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. ~ Albert Einstein

If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough. ~ Mario Andretti

As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

One’s destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things. ~ Henry Miller

Creativity is just connecting things. ~ Steve Jobs

During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1700 times and walked maybe 1800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at bats a season. That means I played seven years without ever hitting the ball. ~ Mickey Mantle

I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life, and that’s why I succeed. ~ Michael Jordan

I’ve seen each of these quotes many times in my life, but I keep coming back to them.

Sometimes it takes me a while to visuali
ze what I’m seeing.

‎Risk more than others think is safe. 

Care more than others think is wise. 

Dream more than others think is practical. 

Expect more than others think is possible. 

~ Claude Bissell via Lili Balfour via John Hagel

Teach compassion…”If you see someone who is struggling to make friends or being bullied because they don’t have friends or because they are shy or not as good looking or not dressed in the best clothes PLEASE step up. Say hi or at least smile at them in the hallway. You never know what that person might be facing outside of school. Your kindness might just make a BIG difference in someone’s life! Pass this on and share with your kids!”

~ @LiliBalfour via Laura Kent

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

~ Gandhi

Love is where compassion prevails and kindness rules.

“What is hard is being good every day.”

 ~ Willie Mays 

Beware rogue pandas on rampage.

Sing with Brian Wilson!!!

Sing with Stephen Hawking!!!

‎”If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them.”

~ Dalai Lama

 “Let your life be a testimony to your truth. Every day be an uncompromisingly true witness to your authentic self. The world needs no more dull carbon copies, folks shrinking from their truth. One stubborn soul, ignited from within, despite the crushing darkness of circumstance, can illuminate the world. We must illuminate the world. We must be brilliant.”

~ @CoryBooker (via @LiliBalfour)

“The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.”

~ Muhammad Ali 

“There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

~ Steve Jobs 

Be who you are, as hard as you can.

Once upon a time, I said, Be here now.

And then I rested, interconnected.

And I said, Be excellent.

WHAT?!

And then I read,

You is kind, you is smart, you is important.

Somewhere in there, rakeshlobster tweeted…

Great career advice from @sv_troutgirl to @joshelman:

Be who you are, as hard as you can.

So I tweeted…

I believe “Be who you are, as hard as you can” originated from @naval.

And Rocky thanked Naval and so did Josh…

That was the most meaningful advice I’ve had in a long time.

So I tweeted…

“Be who you are, as hard as you can” is so easy to say and so hard to do. It takes courage.

And Naval reminded me…

Easiest when you are cast out and have no choice.

He also said to listen to people whose opinion you value.

The key word in everything I’ve said till now: COURAGE.

It takes courage to grow up 
and become who you really are.

      ~ e.e. cummings

See, there’s always a tension between being and becoming.

We’re wetware on all fours, searching profoundly for four11‘s.

To be who you are, you gotta get yourself some rituals:

Once you are who you are, as hard as you can, you can focus on learning more and continually improve yourself.

How can you continually improve yourself?

Bakadesuyo highlights his most interesting research:

• 10 things you need to know to be happier
• 10 things you need to know about sex
• 10 things you need to know about persuasion
• 10 things you need to know about relationships 
• 10 proven ways to be more creat
  ive 
• 10 ways to be more intelligent
• 10 things you need to know about productivity

Be here now. Be excellent. Be happy. Repeat.

Breathe. Be silent. Walk on the ocean…

The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

LEARN says Nature Boy. Casey Abrams’ version is 80% mesmerizing:

 

A WORD ON STATISTICS, by Wislawa Szymborska

Out of every hundred people,

those who always know better:
fifty-two.

Unsure of every step:
almost all the rest.

Ready to help,
if it doesn’t take long:
forty-nine.

Always good,
because they cannot be otherwise:
four — well, maybe five.

Able to admire without envy:
eighteen.

Led to error
by youth (which passes):
sixty, plus or minus.

Those not to be messed with:
four-and-forty.

Living in constant fear
of someone or something:
seventy-seven.

Capable of happiness:
twenty-some-odd at most.

Harmless alone,
turning savage in crowds:
more than half, for sure.

Cruel
when forced by circumstances:
it’s better not to know,
not even approximately.

Wise in hindsight:
not many more
than wise in foresight.

Getting nothing out of life except things:
thirty
(though I would like to be wrong).

Balled up in pain
and without a flashlight in the dark:
eighty-three, sooner or later.

Those who are just:
quite a few, thirty-five.

But if it takes effort to understand:
three.

Worthy of empathy:
ninety-nine.

Mortal:
one hundred out of one hundred –
a figure that has never varied yet.

(translated from the Polish by Joanna Trzeciak)

Source: Caterina.net

 

There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.

Being happy does not mean everything is perfect;
it means you decide to see beyond the imperfections.

Remember the words of Winston Churchill, who said,

I like things to happen;
And if they don’t happen,
I like to make them happen.

But here is the exception: there is no way to happiness.

Happiness is the way, meditated Thich Nhat Hanh.

We breathe and connect the words of Nathaniel Hawthorne…

Happiness is a butterfly,

which when pursued,

is always just beyond your grasp,

but which,

if you will sit down quietly,

may alight upon you.

A butterfly flies with the magnetic appeal of a meaningful life…

People searching for a purpose in life — whether or not they are consciously aware of this deep-seated desire — will be attracted to others who have arrived at an answer.

And so we answer questions and question answers on Quora, in a neverending process of continual improvement…

• What defines happiness?
• What is the way to happiness?
• What is the concrete way to happiness?
• Why are successful people the happiest?
• What are some worthy goals to pursue in life?
• How can you maximize your happiness in life?
• What are life’s lessons from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos?
• Why are we drawn to those who have found meaning?
• What is the meaning of life?

Meditating ten essential reflections on happiness, we know that to be happy we have to want to be happy.

And that whoever is happy will make others happy, too…

Because the head is an overstated organ;
all of the action happens in the heart.

We breathe and reflect about happiness and kindness…

• Be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle.
• Only kindness matters in the end.

Never get so busy making a living,
that you forget to make a life.

And remember, there is no way to happiness.
Happiness is the way.

And once more, with feeling: SIMPLIFY.

SIMPLIFY.

Slow down.
Imagine doing less.
Make time for loved ones.
Practice patience.
Learn to gently say no.
Increase your quiet time.
Follow your heart.
Yield to life, yield to peace, yield to joy…

(…author unknown…and always be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle…)

 

 

Now is also a good moment along the journey to simplify our way of happiness…

As human beings, our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Oliver Goldsmith said that first, but every moment we get to put that attitude into practice, making it into a habit, by being excellent. As Ralph Marston said… 

Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.

Everything is deeply interconnected. Aristotle (or Will Durant) has been oft-quoted, too…

We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.

Robert F. Kennedy had another variation on this theme, when RFK said,

Only those who dare to fail greatly
can ever achieve greatly.

In other words, a fall is not a fail… It is an opportunity to learn. We can remind ourselves of this by singing (or dancing to!) Chumbawumba’s “Tubthumping”, boldly declaring…

I get knocked down, but I get up again,

you’re never gonna keep me down…

“Tubthumping” is much catchier than Dwayne Wade’s “fall seven times, stand up eight” commercial, which repurposes an old martial arts line…

Knocked down seven times, get up eight!

 

…which simply takes us back to our daily reflection and incantation…

Be excellent, for everything is about inclusion.

…so get yourself some rituals…

…don’t just be a cat in a box like all the other cats…

…and practice inner peace, because in the end, only kindness matters…

 Be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle.

Eleven Essential Reflections On Happiness…

Wow.

That may have been the sweetest ending of a World Cup game I have ever watched.

You can watch the highlights on your favorite Interweb site, but they won’t really give you the feeling of 90 minutes of tense, do-or-die buildup , culminating in a super charged score in the final minute that propelled Team USA from elimination into first place in their group!

****** I am “Snoopy Dance happy” !!! ******

But I realize this is a temporary happiness that comes from adrenaline and other juices pumping through my headmeats. Soon that rush will subside, and I will go back to reflecting my baseline happiness.

Simply put, happiness is the way.

And happiness comes from within.

Which brings us back to one of the main characteristics that defines being and becoming and the gap in between them: HAPPINESS.

Note that we are not talking about absence of pain; we’re talking presence of happiness.

A hundred days ago I created this ifindkarma posterous because bakadesuyo inspired me with his. I love to read what he writes, and in particular I love when he reflects about subjects such as happiness.

If I had to distill all of bakadesuyo’s happiness musings into essential reflections, here are the key takeaways I’ve internalized… so far…

10. Happiness is increased by how much you make and lowered by how much you want.

9. Happiness is a feedback loop, not just internally but also through others.

8. So be careful who you choose as spouse, friends, and neighbors.

7. Relative wealth is more important than actual wealth when it comes to how happy you are.

6. Giving makes us happier than receiving. Outcomes trump incomes in making us happy.

5. Happy people tend to love their jobs; jobs do not, by themselves, make people happy.

4. We’re bad at realizing how good we are at adapting to circumstances.

3. When distilled to its essence, happiness is a simple process.

2. To be happy, focus on what you have, and not on what you don’t.

1. There are still many unanswered questions when it comes to happiness.

Which brings me back to me. If I had to distill all of my happiness musings into eleven essential reflections, here are the key takeaways I’ve externalized… so far…

11. Read these musings, especially the one you’re reading right now. Reflect! Repeat!!! 🙂

10. There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.

9. People are very bad at predicting what will make them happy.

8. Our attitudes produce our luck.

7. Most success comes from being present.

6. Reflection helps us be here now.

5. There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them.

4. There are shortcuts to happiness, and breathing is one of them.

3. Happiness is interconnected to all things.

2. Happiness comes from what we want to include, not from what we want to avoid.

1. When it comes to happiness, lessons are repeated until they are learned.

And if all else fails, take a step back, breathe, think about a kitten wearing a tiny hat eating a tiny ice cream cone, and regroup. For tomorrow is another day, and we cannot waste today’s time cluttering up tomorrow’s opportunities with yesterday’s troubles.

Kitten. Tiny hat. Tiny ice cream cone. NOW!!!

Raindrops on roses and tiny hats on kittens aside, I want to take a moment or two to thank Jennifer Aaker and Gretchen Rubin and Tony Hsieh and Niki Leondakis and Caterina Fake for driving me to keep reflecting on happiness as I walk the earth. The tension between being and becoming has become more than an avocation for me… it’s something I’d love to work into my vocation, someday, someway. It is love incarnate.

Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.

To empower other people to find their own happiness, to me, is tantamount to enabling the childhood dreams of others.

There is no greater job than enabling the childhood dreams of others.

Read. Reflect. Repeat.

We conclude this tapestry with a trinity of TED talks that reflect on happiness: Tony Robbins on why we do what we do (emotion!) and how we can do it better (focus!); Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice; and Dan Gilbert on why we are or are not happy:

(Cc: @Bakadesuyo @Aaker @GretchenRubin @Zappos @Niki_Leondakis @Caterina) 🙂 🙂 🙂

Be here now.

Michelle Geromel posted,

“Dear friend,

Not even I know how a dream will come true, until it does.

But if you just keep showing up, they always do.

Big-Love-Hug,
~The Universe” (source: tut.com)

I told her that being present is challenging because life has so many “be here now” distractions. To which she responded…

Whenever she feels scattered, she looks in the mirror and asks herself where she is.

Sometimes she has to ask herself a few times to bring herself back to the present, but it always works:

1. Breathe.
2. Let go.
3. Reflect.

 

Reflection always works…

Perhaps that’s why reflection creates identity…

To be here now, engage your reflection.

“Find joy and peace in this very moment.”

Be grateful for every breath.

Life is… delicious ambiguity.

Character is destiny. Everything will be okay in the end. So…

Whenever you are knocked down, get up.

Simplify.

We close this note with a score of reflections over the last month, reflected in my statuses on Facebook and Twitter…

“Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” ~ Robert Heinlein (via Ashley Merkut)

“Stop thinking about life and start living it.” ~ @PauloCoelho (via @IlzeSuna)

“Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you. You just gotta find the ones worth suffering for…” ~ Bob Marley (via me)

“The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook.” (via Teresa Pedraza)

“Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.” ~ Walt Whitman (via Altaire Gural)

“Life gives answers in three ways… It says Yes and gives you what you want; it says No and gives you something better; it says Wait and gives you the Best!” (via @IlzeSuna)

“If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everyt
hing is ready, we shall never begin.” ~ Ivan Turgenev (via Persia Pele)

“If everything seems under control — you’re just not going fast enough.” ~ Mario Andretti (via Marianne Borenstein)

“I am a professional guitar player. People pay me to stop.” ~ Bob Cleveland (via me)

“Sue Sylvester has hourly flare-ups of burning, itchy, highly contagious talent…” ~ GLEE (via @AmyKeefe)

“Twitter is really going through a detox right now, and it’s trying to get some of the toxins out of its system.” ~ Michael Abbott (via the Merc, still doing better than Yahoo)

“Violence is never the answer, unless the question is, ‘What is never the answer?'” ~ Cleveland Brown (via me)

“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.” ~ Mother Teresa (via @IlzeSuna)

“It is not difficult to love good people. It is difficult to love people as they are.” ~ Juris Rubenis (via @IlzeSuna)

“Death is not sad; the sad thing is that most people don’t really live at all.” ~ Peaceful Warrior (via Amie Valenzuela)

“Goodbyes are not forever. Goodbyes are not the end. They simply mean I’ll miss you Until we meet again!” (via @IlzeSuna)

“Even if you work hard and make wise choices, you still need a little luck. Never forget.” (via me)

“Worry is wasting today’s time to clutter up tomorrow’s opportunities with yesterday’s troubles.” (via Faith Thomas)

“Find joy and peace in this very moment.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh (via @NikiConnor)

“the yogic breath (in thru the nose, out thru the mouth) in sanskrit is ‘ham sa’ which means ‘that i am‘… beautiful…” (via samantha graham)

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” ~ Anne Frank (via thedogs.com)

“Ancie
nt master says: If you like everything, then you like nothing. But if you love everything, you have the world.” ~ Kurt Thams

“Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.” ~ Henry James

 

We believe in the interconnectedness of all things.

“We are feedback loops; we are the stories we tell ourselves…”
~ Doc Jensen on LOST  

“He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder…”
~ M.C. Escher

In the beginning, there was nothing but darkness. We all were one.

And then we said, “Oh hai, Let there be light.“

And then we LOOK closer and more carefully. We could see that there was nothing. Which is a funny thing to say because sometimes words are inadequate, and sometimes words have two meanings.

And then expansion started… Wait!

And we added things. And the universe expanded. And we added more things. And the universe kept expanding to accommodate adding more things. And everything was awesome. Fundamentally.

It might seem like everything was added randomly. And perhaps that is the case. But that’s not what we believe.

We believe in the interconnectedness of all things.

This idea was kept in the dark for billions of years. Instead, the reigning belief was detachment: “I don’t really want to know how your garden grows, ’cause I just want to fly.” And so, we lived forever…

…and life was but a dream. Edgar Allan Poe waxed poetic, “All that we see or seem… is but a dream within a dream.” (Thanks Ankita!)

And we thought about the words of Rumi…

“We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust.“

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.“

“The face of the unknown, hidden beyond the universe would appear on the mirror of your

perception.“

“They say there is a doorway from heart to heart, but what is the use of a door when there are no walls?“

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.“

And the Primitive Radio Gods whispered quietly in the corner…

Am I alive, or thoughts that drift away?

Does summer come for everyone?

Can humans do what prophets say?

If I die before I learn to speak,

can money pay for all the days

I lived awake but half-asleep?

Suddenly we woke up with a kick. And we were no longer detached when we woke up with the idea. Not to spoil Inception, but merely to praise Inception:

“What’s the most resilient parasite? An idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules.“

For our idea, Douglas Adams offered enlightenment. Specifically, Dirk Gently illuminated us.

I’m very glad you asked me that, Mrs Rawlinson. The term `holistic’ refers to my conviction that what we are concerned with here is the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. I do not concern myself with such petty things as fingerprint powder, telltale pieces of pocket fluff and inane footprints. I see the solution to each problem as being detectable in the pattern and web of the whole. The connections between causes and effects are often much more subtle and complex than we with our rough and ready understanding of the physical world might naturally suppose, Mrs Rawlinson. Let me give you an example. If you go to an acupuncturist with toothache he sticks a needle instead into your thigh. Do you know why he does that, Mrs Rawlinson? No, neither do I, Mrs Rawlinson, but we intend to find out. A pleasure talking to you, Mrs Rawlinson. Goodbye. 

    — Douglas Adams, Dirk Gentley’s Holistic Detective Agency

And then Tim Berners-Lee — or was it Dan Connolly? — distilled the words to their essence:

We believe in the interconnectedness of all things.

And then Jamie Zawinski reflected on the Vannevar Bush-influenced words of Ted Nelson:

Intertwingularity is not generally acknowledged —
people keep pretending they can make things deeply hierarchical, categorizable and sequential when they can’t.

Everything is deeply intertwingled.

And then the Internet developed its own connective tissue. Which itself is unsearchable.

And then I couldn’t believe what happened next. Free association. Say what? We’ll see.

And then there we were, all in one place, a generation lost in the fundamental inteconnectedness of all things, spinning in infinity. The eleventh dimension. The ten dimensions of reality. Pandas and lobsters. Insults. FFF numbers. Facebook grief. How the web was won. The search party. Google takes all. Cell 13 and the Thinking Machine. Penguins of destiny. Whales are the answer. Squid vs unicorn. Puking rainbows. The sky is blue. The World Wide Web. Conversations. Trilogies. Peripeteia. Jenny Holzer. It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine). Pause, to part the Red Sea…

…continuing. LOOK. We didn’t start the fire. America, fuck yeah. Freedom isn’t free. Terrible Disney lessons. The virus of faith. 2000″ TV. You’re the man now, dawg. Blue ball machine. Facebook is a lobster trap, and your friends are the bait. True happiness comes from within. It comes back to you, you’re gonna get what you deserve… lovin’ is what I got, remember that. The ride does not require an explanation, just occupants. Imitation of life. Noah’s photos. I’m expressin’ with my full capabilities, now I’m living in correctional facilities. Now let me welcome everybody to the wild wild west… California love… Regulators!!! I want it all: brand new socks and drawers. Why do I live this way? Heeeey, must be the money! Alright stop, collaborate and listen. How can I find a woman like that? Guitar: impossible. French bulldogs. OMG pwnies. Ready, set, bag. Speak with me. Meditate. Mediate. Kick. Things that make you go hmmm. Show me how to dance. Alejandro. Ra ra ra ah ah ah roma ro ma ma gaga ooh la la. Cameron Diaz dances. Stephen Hawking rocks. Time travel is horrifying. Outer space sucks. Crumbling cities. Pink houses. Iconic bras. Mad men. Ah, l’amour. Disney perversions. Episode 200. And 201. Freedom. Unconscious trumps free will. Disney deaths. Serial killers. Corporate slogans. At-at. Canned unicorn meat. What if you’re wrong? The purpose of purpose. The empathetic civilization. Emma Bates. Qualia. Reid Hoffman. Hegel’s philosophy of history. The unexplainable. Time-traveling brandy thieves. Life on Mars. LOST. The Little Prince.

I love The Little Prince. Whi
ch reminds me of some of my favorite words that Robbye Bentley has posted recently…

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.” ~ Og Mandino

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Life and Jah are one in the same. Jah is the gift of existence. I am in some way eternal, I will never be duplicated. The singularity of every man and woman is Jah’s gift. What we struggle to make of it is our sole gift to Jah. The process of what that struggle becomes, in time, the Truth.” ~ Bob Marley

“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.” ~ Stephen Covey

Thank you, Robbye. I have some favorites of my own, too.

The words of Rumi echo in eternity, “The face of the unknown, hidden beyond the universe would appear on the mirror of your perception.”

Walt Whitman whispered, “Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.”

Which takes me full circle…

“Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.” ~ Henry James

“Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for…” ~ Bob Marley

“I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right. You believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” ~ Marilyn Monroe

“If success or failure of the planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do… How would I be? What would I do?” ~ R. Buckminster Fuller

“We are all connected to each other, in a circle, in a hoop that never ends. How high can the sycamore grow? If you cut it down, then you’ll never know…” ~ Colors of the Wind

So it goes.

And Scott Adams said, “The best you can hope for in this life is that your delusions are benign and your compulsions have utility.”

So it goes…

 

And then a lot of peoples’ brains exploded. Such is rock n roll.

And then we rested. Or at least, we tried to relax and breathe and reflect…

And dream of no more “and thens”. And butterfly effects.

And appreciate that nothing can ever be truly, fully understood. Seriously.

At that point, when all are one and one is all…
Remember to be a rock and not to roll.

Still, three fundamental questions remain:

1. If everything is everythang, are being and becoming just limited beings’ perspective of the oneness?
2. If happiness is part of the oneness, why is it so difficult to be here now and connect to that happiness?
3. If lessons are repeated until they are learned, is learning just finding the right connection to the oneness?

And are there things we can never learn? We’ll see.

If some connections cannot be made, perhaps there is no spoon at all.

If Internet is the substrate for interconnectedness of all things, perhaps The Architect knows.

And are there things that cannot be taught? Richard Feynman refuses to explain how magnets work. Feynman concludes, I really can’t do a good job, any job, of explaining magnetic force in terms of something else you’re more familiar with, because I don’t understand it in terms of anything else you’re more familiar with.

Breathing is neither learned nor taught. It just is. And yet sometimes we must remember to breathe. And to be here now. And to be grateful for every breath.

And then when that gratitude gets us reflecting about the meaning of life, we learn to let it go; this too shall pass…

It’s one who won’t be taken, that cannot seem to give, and the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live, sang Bette Midler.

So it goes.

Savor every second; enjoy every sandwich, as the dying Warren Zevon put it.

So it goes.

You need to live before you die, said Steve Jobs…

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have
to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.“

So it goes…

It is through death, too, that we make a connection with Randy Pausch… Con te partiro.

In the end, there is no greater job than enabling the childhood dreams of others.

And in the end, everything will be okay. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.

And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

And in the end, only kindness matters.

So we dance. And LOOK. And simplify. And reflect. And breathe.

Which takes us back to the beginning.

And then… Bazinga!

Everything is everythang.

(Lately I have been regularly reminded that

everything is connected — there are no “separate entities” in our universe, and we are all part of something bigger… 

This in turn reminds me of a scene from The Sopranos which I transcribed years ago and include again below because lessons are repeated until they are learned…)

 

Sometimes I go about in
pity for myself, and all
the while, a great wind
carries me across the sky.
           — Ojibwe Saying

 

(Gathered in a hospital room, watching a boxing match on TV.)

Paulie, watching a boxer get hit: It’s a life of abuse.

John Schwinn: Well, he is a boxer. Heh.

Paulie: It’s the same for everybody. (To Tony:) Look at you, T. You do your uncle a kindness, you get shot for your efforts. You think you got family, but in the end, they fuck you, too.

Tony, to John: He’s grieving. His aunt just died.

Paulie: I tell ya, we each and every one of us are alone in the ring, fighting for our lives. Just like that poor prick. (Points to boxer.)

John: Well, that’s one way to look at it.

Paulie: You got a better one?

John: Don’t get me started. It’s complicated…

Paulie: Think I’m stupid?

John: Well, it… It’s actually an illusion those two boxers are separate entities.

Paulie: What the fuck?

Rapper: Illusion?

John: “The separate entities” is simply the way we choose to perceive them.

Tony: I didn’t choose nothin’…

John: It’s… it’s physics. Schrödinger’s equation. The boxers, you, me… we’re all part of the same quantum field.

Rapper’s girlfriend: You ever substitute teach at Carlton middle school?

Tony: He’s a rocket scientist, fer chissakes. Bell labs. (Boxer beats on other boxer.) You were saying?

John: Well, think of the two boxers as ocean waves or currents of air. Two tornadoes, say. They appear to be two things, right? Two separate things? But they’re not. The tornadoes are just wind, the wind stirred up in different directions. The fact is, nothing is separate. Everything is connected.

Rapper: Everything is everythang. (Raises cup.) I’m down with that.

Tony: Get the fuck outta here!

John: The universe is just a big soup of molecules bumping up against one another. The shapes we see exist only in our own consciousness. (TV picture goes out.)

Paulie: You’re so fuckin’ smart… fix that TV.

John: (Laughs.) Okay…

…

Tony: So, Mr. Wizard, you were talkin’ about tornadoes. Know what the Indians say about the wind?

John: No.

Tony: They say that sometimes we go around feeling pity for ourselves, but behind our back a great wind is carrying us.

John: We don’t see we’re part of a much bigger reality.

Tony: And then we die.

John: Why are you so interested in all this?

Tony: I was in the coma, and I… look, I don’t remember nothin’. But before I woke up, I felt like I was being pulled towards something. And I don’t wanna go back… Then my wife told me I woke up at one point. I said, Who am I? Where am I going? You know, it makes you wonder. About… heaven… and, uh… hell…

John: That presupposes a duality of good and evil. You know, it gets us ba
ck to the idea of separate, opposing entities. You know where I go with that.

Tony: Well, this Bible guy I know says you’re going to hell.

John: Maybe he’s right. Got my test results back. Laryngial cancer.

Tony: Jesus, I’m sorry.

John: Yeah, I was thinking maybe you could do me a favor, and, uh, you know, what’s the term? “Whack me”? Sorry. Bad joke.

…

Paulie: All I’m saying, [your mother] Livia with all her faults never abandoned you.

Tony: Fer chrissake, Paulie, you know what your problem is? You go around in pity for yourself! You think you got it bad. You’re not stuck in some hospital with fuckin’ tubes coming out of you. You can eat food like a normal person…

Paulie: T., I never meant to trivialize your situation…

Tony: Well, you gotta get beyond this petty bullshit, Paulie… You… You’re part of something bigger. When you gonna learn that?

…

— Sopranos episode 69, “Fleshy Part of the Thigh“

 

 

 

P.S. — True happiness comes from within.

 

You can do anything.

You can do anything, but you cannot do everything.

So reflect, think carefully, and choose wisely.

The good news is, you don't have to choose alone.

Everybody's all connected, you see…

What her words lack in coherence is more than made up for in enthusiasm. 🙂