the book on abraham

Busy again, but a few quotes for you from the greatest of Americans.

Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.

From a Letter to Joshua Speed

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.

From a letter to Isham Reavis (5 November 1855)

One quote that I used to favor which I believe has been wrongly attributed to Lincoln is:

I am a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him down...

For more reading on the subject I recommend A Lincoln Blog and the great book by Doris Kearns Goodwin entitled Team of Rivals. Lincoln was the greatest President. This is a given as far as I am concerned. Team of Rivals may be proof that he was one of the greatest human beings ever.

Note: I would like to write a much longer post on Lincoln and I may still yet, but I figured we can always use some guidance. A few quick quotes from one of the greatest always helps me find some of that lost get-up-and-go.

Conan the attitudinarian?

All I ask of you is one thing: Please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere.

Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen.

Conan O'Brien

This is the quote of the year for 2010, although it is still early. I have been saying for a while now that optimism is the word of the year for 2010 but this might be the more accurate description. Let's keep our heads down, let's focus on working hard and being kind and being good and let's be optimistic that fortune is a byproduct of such conduct. This is not earth-shattering, but it is worth repeating to myself. You get out of life what you put into it. I'm no longer looking for miracles, I'm just looking for improvement. I can't go wrong.

Good luck to Conan. I am wishing you all the best.

UPDATE: Congrats Conan. I hope there is more to come.

wil or nill

A man seeks his own destiny and no other, said the judge. Wil or nill. Any man who could discover his own fate and elect therefore some opposite course could only come at last to that selfsame reckoning at the same appointed time, for each man's destiny is as large as the world he inhabits and contains within it all opposites as well. The desert upon which so many have been broken is vast and calls for largeness of heart but it is also ultimately empty. It is hard, it is barren. Its very nature is stone.

- The Judge
from Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.

Whoa nellie. This is one that I have struggled with for a long time. Fate vs. free will: a recurring theme in McCarthy's books, as well as East of Eden and my conversations with friends. I had one such conversation yesterday with good friend to this blog ExP (that's esquire to you!). I could not help but sit up last night, thinking about what we had discussed. But I have overthought the concept, my brain is fried and I am of no further use to the discussion today except for one comment. When the storm has chased us into the back of the closet we pray for a turn to fortune (fate). When we are high on our own achievements we walk alone (freewill). Maybe we all inside of us have the need to believe both, and just maybe it doesn't matter which is true. We are in control until we are out of control and so we should learn to operate under both scenarios. High or low, I guess we'll always be learning.
For more perspective, read East of Eden (warning this link contains text from the book).

Also, I am a big fan of Ken Arneson, the creator of the now defunct Baseball Toaster blog. Do yourself a favor some time and go back and read the last post on the old Baseball Toaster entitled And So to Fade Away. It's a sweeping post that reflects on his Swedish heritage, his life as a baseball fan, the great forum he created for talking baseball, it's collapse and his own reflections on moving on. It is a great piece of internet writing. Well, Jon Weisman (former Baseball Toaster writer) of the LA Times has a link today to Ken's new blog, and from the sounds of it it will be a doozy as it does not limit Ken to just baseball. "How do you choose a philosophy?" Are you kidding me? Let's follow along together.

i am not sure of many things.

"With cash in your pockets you are wise and good looking and can sing." - Yiddish proverb.

On what level do we connect, you and I? Do we share interests? Do we use each other to better ourselves? Or, do we commiserate over our shared flaws? How did we come to be acquainted at all?
And, what are our expectations of each other? Why do we expect such? These questions are all related and important. To know the answers to these questions is to have a high emotional intelligence. And, if I am to believe what I have been taught in Business 40013, a high emotional intelligence can pave the way for many successful business and personal relationships.

One key part of the equation is trust. If I trust you then I most likely expect more from you and from myself. Another part, assuredly, is perception. The way we perceive and are perceived has so much to do with the way we interact. So yes, with more money or more confidence we find the world much easier to conquer with our wits and our talents.

Of course, we cannot overlook luck in all of this. In each friendship, wasn't there some luck in our getting to know each other. But what is the other part of this social equation? What mysterious dark matter fills the gaps? Some may call it spark. It can cause us to fall in love or be best friends or just merely acquaintances. It cannot be controlled or understood, but we should all be aware of its existence. But what value do we place on luck and spark?

Gee whiz. I analyze, re-analyze, over-analyze, self-analyze, cross-analyze and pre-analyze. It's a marathon race around a high school track. It's a lot of work with no reward and sometimes you never get anywhere at all. Notice, there are more questions in this post than there are ideas. And, this is as exhausting to write as it is for you to read. But sometimes in this world, sometimes you take a long walk down a dark alley towards an unknown destination. You go there not to be right or be happy. You go there because you have never been and at the moment that just sounds nice. You've got cash in your pockets and you're good at traveling.

Hat tip to alw for the Yiddish quote and for also allowing me to quote her for the title of this post. Thanks.

in the country . . .

Dock went back to his old stuff, which included sinkers and sliders but relied on the fastball and on location. He went back to winning. "Everything down and away," he remembers, like all of us who forget from time to time the most important things we have learned in our lifetimes. "Everything down and away - how can you lose?" *

Emphasis mine.

This is like a great horoscope or fortune from a fortune cookie. Have you forgotten the important lessons in your life? Take time to check your life lesson inventory.

Dock's face beams as he cries: "Continuous recovery! I'll be recovering until I die!" All teaching is transference to an admired example. *

Substitute 'growth' or 'learning' for 'recovery'/'recovering' and you have yourself a mantra. Continuous growth! I'll be learning until I die!

* Excerpts from In The Country of Baseball by Donald Hall with Dock Ellis (shown above wearing curlers while warming up for a baseball game).

UPDATE: Dock Ellis was most famous for pitching a no-hitter while on acid. Care to see what that was like?
Hat tip to Jon Weisman at the LA Times for the video.
And a hat tip to James Blagden for making the video. Kudos.

elwood p dowd

Just a couple of quotes from Elwood P. Dowd.

"I always have a wonderful time, wherever I am, whomever I'm with." - EPD

Man, wouldn't you love to say this is true about yourself? I certainly can't, as my friends would attest. But I do know people who can say this. It amazes me and I find lately that I envy them. I want that sort of pleasant optimism.

"Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, "In this world, Elwood, you must be" - she always called me Elwood - "In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me." - EPD

Have you ever heard the saying (and I am quoting loosely here) "Personal wisdom is deciding what you want and what you need and then finding the balance between the two"? I often think about this saying in my life, but lately I wonder if I have done a good job at all of finding the balance.
I try to set loose goals to help me be where I want to be in five, ten, twenty years. I have met people who are cool at age 40. I know people who are very uncool at age 30. Each of these people have found their own happiness. I have thought for a few years that I wanted to still be cool when I am 40. I thought I wanted to know the coolest music, books, films, art, restaurants and cities. But if you go back about six years, there was something else on my wish list for my future self. I met a girl back then who told me that her fiance's stated goal in life was to be known as a nice guy. I remember thinking it was such a grand aspiration and that I wanted to assimilate it as one of my own goals. For a while it was, but it faded. Being "nice" and doing "nice" things was code for boring. I put way too much precedence on the "cool".
And so here I am, at a crossroads of sorts. I want to be smart, cool and funny and I want to intellectualize the cool stuff. I recently came to realize that I need the "pleasant" stuff in my life as well. If only I was wise enough to find the balance.
One rabbit's foot in front of the other, I guess.

Einstein

Einstein on Science and Religion.