sounds easy enough

Previous words of wisdom:

"Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get."
- Dale Carnegie

Time for a new "think on it" idea to ponder. For archival purposes, here are the previous words of wisdom:

"When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic."

- Dresden James

out with the old...

Previous words of wisdom are below. New are at the top of the column on the right. No rhyme or reason for the picture at left. I just thought the marble tile medallions were pretty. Peace.

"Activity suggests a life filled with purpose."
- Christopher Plummer as Captain Georg von Trapp, in The Sound of Music

changing of the guard

Previous words of wisdom were as follows:

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
- not Edmund Burke

New food for thought above.

what are words for

I change the "think on it" words of wisdom on my sidebar as the mood strikes me. When I remove the old to display the new, I don't always tuck it away in a place for safekeeping and/or future reference. For some reason today, I had an idea of a simple way to do that. Any time I make the change, I'll post the old saying as an entry. Today is maiden voyage of this practice.

Previous words of wisdom:

"You must do the things you think you cannot do."- Eleanor Roosevelt

Mrs. Roosevelt was a font of wisdom, whose words will undoubtedly show up here again. Today, however, we move on to wise words for which I cannot find a definitive source. Most people cite Edmund Burke, however, this note may suggest otherwise:

"Attributed to Edmund Burke, but never found in his works. It may be a paraphrase of Burke’s view that 'When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle' (Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, April 23, 1770)."

Same concept. Popular version is more pithy.

fortune

"You have a potential urge and the ability for accomplishment."

wisdom

Too often, we are scared.
Scared of what we might not be able to do.
Scared of what people might think if we tried.
We let our fears stand in the way of our hopes.
We say no when we want to say yes.
We sit quietly when we want to scream.
And we shout with the others,
when we should keep our mouths shut.
Why?
After all,
we do only go around once.
There's really no time to be afraid.
So stop.
Try something you've never tried.
Risk it.
Enter a triathlon.
Write a letter to the editor.
Demand a raise.
Call winners at the toughest court.
Throw away your television.
Bicycle across the United States.
Try bobsledding.
Try anything.
Speak out against the designated hitter.
Travel to a country where you don't speak the language.
Patent something.
Call her.
You have nothing to lose
and everything
everything
everything to gain.

inertia no more

"In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."

- Theodore Roosevelt

being real

"Common-looking people are the best in the world; that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.” - Abraham Lincoln

hooky, part v

My relationship with football is a tenuous one, at best. Before meeting my husband, my only appreciation of the sport was that it takes about seven times longer to finish a game than the amount of time left on the game clock. Ted has done much to advance the cause of football in my life, to the point where I:

[A] participate in viewings with friends (although only of the Seahawks and the Superbowl),

[B] recognize key players (even on teams other than the Seahawks) and sometimes even know what makes them especially good (Josh Brown rules!),

[C] fully understand the most important plays (touchdowns, field goals, etc.) and partly get other stuff, and

[D] occasionally read articles and listen to new stories about football.

OK, so it's not much more than before, but it's more. The other day, I happened upon Ted's Sports Illustrated and found an article by Rick Reilly. Actually, I read a lot of Mr. Reilly's articles. This one is called "A Barber Who Won't Cut It Close." It's about Tiki Barber (one of a pair of twins who both play professional football... see? I know this stuff). And it makes me believe that he is one of the smartest men in football. Read for yourself.

In America, you do not quit at the top. You do not quit when you're the leading rusher in the NFL. You do not quit when there's millions left on the table. But Tiki Barber, a 31-year-old Giants running back, is retiring at the end of this season, his 10th in pro football -- and the country wants to sue.

"To me, [he's] quitting. That's not retiring." -- MICHAEL IRVIN, ESPN

Meet Earl Campbell. Heisman-winning running back at Texas and 1979 NFL MVP with the Oilers. His back is shot. Two months ago, at his old college stadium, a statue depicting a strong and virile Campbell from his playing days was unveiled. The man himself, though, had to be helped out of a golf cart and to the podium so he could speak to the crowd. He is 51.

Meet Jim Plunkett. Played quarterback for 15 NFL seasons. Yesterday was a very bad day for Plunkett. What happened? "I woke up," he says. Plunkett doesn't seize the day. It seizes him. He has constant throbbing in his back and neck. He's got arthritis in one hip and both knees. He can't raise his left arm past his shoulder. His spine is so curved, he tilts like a sinking oil tanker. The pain wakes him up at night. He's 58.

"I tell my kids, 'Pretty soon, you're going to be wheeling me around,'" says Plunkett. He's not laughing when he says it.

"I don't quite know why Tiki is quitting. Maybe being a Super Bowl champion isn't that important to him." -- JIM OTTO, HALL OF FAME CENTER

It meant a helluva lot to Otto, who never won a Super Bowl in 15 seasons with the Raiders but nearly destroyed his body trying. He's had nearly 60 operations -- 48 on his knees, three on his nose, three on his shoulders, three on his back and one on each elbow. His ankle looks like a science project. He's got rods up and down his spine. Arthritis in his feet and neck tortures him. He is 68.

"He could be leaving 3,000 yards on the field, which could put him on the wrong side of the Hall of Fame bubble." -- GARY MYERS, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

At the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony every year, we see the price of greatness. It gouges. Anvil-jawed heroes teeter across the stage as if it's their first time on stilts. It takes them longer to sit down than many drive-through transactions take.

Meet Paul Krause. He was enshrined in Canton after spending 16 seasons as an NFL free safety, 12 of them with the Vikings. Pain forces him to change positions every five minutes.

Meet Hall of Famer Jim Langer, 12 seasons, including 10 on the Dolphins' offensive line. He walks like a man with nails in his shoes, but he'll never use a walker. "If it gets to that point, I'll move on," he says. What's that mean? "That's my business."

Meet Dan Dierdorf. Lineman, Cardinals, 13 seasons, also in the Hall. Uses a cane when he walks, if you can call what he does walking. Blocking with his head first has left him two inches shorter than he was in college. He's already got two artificial hips, and he's planning to have a second knee replacement. His ankle needs fusing. "I've got more titanium in my body than in my golf bag," Dierdorf says.

Once, Dierdorf happened to be walking down a Canton hallway next to Dick Butkus. They looked like a pair of Iwo Jima survivors. Butkus's legs are so bad, he lumbers along as though he's about to tip forward on his nose. Dierdorf walks like a Maryland crab, from side to side. "If we could've found a guy who walked tipping over backwards," Dierdorf says, "we'd have had every direction covered."

"Honestly, I don't want Tiki around anyway if his heart isn't in it." -- DKATZ0, BBI CORNER FORUM

Tiki Barber has his money, his memories and most of his cartilage. What he doesn't seem to have is the right to live his own life.

"When I get home from work," says Barber, "my [two- and four-year-old] kids come running at me. They make me get on my knees, and we play tackle football. On replacement knees, that's not happening. I saw this video of O.J. Simpson once, and his kids came running at him and he couldn't even pick them up. So I can see that if I play three or four more years, like everybody wants me to, that could be me. But when I'm 50 years old, and I'm having trouble just getting down the stairs, will they be cheering for me then?"

Meet Tiki Barber.

He walked, while he still could.

A very smart man, indeed.

growing strong

Some words of wisdom and a quick link to a neat photo project. First the wisdom:

"Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind, the stronger the trees." - J. Willard Marriott

And now the photo project:



Cool.

the invitation

The Invitation
by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for,
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams,
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow,
if you have been opened by life's betrayals
or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own,
if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic,
or to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself;
if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore be trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day,
and if you can source your life from God's presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine,
and still stand on the edge of a lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes"!

It doesn't interest me to know where you live, how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair,
weary and bruised to the bone,
and do what needs to be done for the children.

It doesn't interest me who you are, how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself,
and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

in the spirit of looking forward

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."

- Walt Disney

whole soul

No woman can hope to accomplish anything great in this world until she throws her whole soul, flings the force of her whole life, into it. It is not enough simply to have a general desire to accomplish something. There is but one way to do that; and that is, to try to be somebody with all the concentrated energy we can muster. Any kind of human being can wish for a thing, can desire it; but only strong vigorous minds with great purposes can do things.

- Orison Swett Marden