Hang on, Voltaire: Perspective

9.12.06

Perspective

You all probably already heard about this but I missed NPR most of the week so just heard on Weekend Edition. My grading stopped in sobs as the story evolved.

The Heroism of James Kim
Two perspective-altering points:
a. things are really not that bad, Susan
b. people are still amazing sometimes

2 commentaires:

Jessica a dit…: He was an amazing man. He apparently walked 16 miles before his death too. It is so sad. I feel for the family.

Since working with the American Red Cross I just want to encourage everyone to create a disaster kit, preferably one for the house and a small version for the car. I know that currently I have nothing in my car for water, food or to start fire. Emergencies can pop up any time.

If anyone needs a starting point for what to have in a kit...
http://www.arlingtonredcross.org/build_a_kit.html; 20:39
Susan a dit…: great idea sp! tks!!! blogging for a while in here before today's exam - really I'm procrastinating on checking email since posting yesterday's set of grades... whenever you feel nostalgic for your AU job don't forget to factor in end-of-semester whining so that the perspective is as objective as possible! nyernt nyernt; 09:41

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Wisdoms, or not

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

--T. S. Eliot, "Little Gidding V," Four Quartets

Peter: I'm not hungry. I don't need any crêpes.

Walter: Oh, don't be ridiculous. You were abducted; of course you need crêpes.

--Fringe, 2:7 "Of Human Action"

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don't go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don't go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill

where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don't go back to sleep.

--Rumi, from Unseen Rain, (Trans. Coleman Barks)

Things just happen. What the hell.

--the philosopher Didactylos, Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

Eames: I tried Proust in college. I gave up after the first million pages.

Goren: It picks up after the second million pages.

--Law & Order: Criminal Intent, 10:4 "The Last Street in Manhattan"

Let food be thy medicine.

--Hippocrates

...There happens to be a lot about me that you don't know, Mr. Smarty Man.

--American Beauty

"...It makes me feel dangerous, like a spy, or a French person."

--Cougar Town

One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don't come home at night.

--Margaret Mead

Pourquoi tu m'appelles 'beauté' comme si ça se voyait pas?

--Camille, Janine II

I had such fuckin' hopes...

--McNulty, The Wire

I wish to say what I think and feel today, with the proviso that tomorrow perhaps I shall contradict it all.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Don't taunt the fear demon.

--Rupert Giles, Buffy, "Fear Itself"

The world is full of this kind of dumb smart-alec who doesn't understand anything.

--Richard Feynman

When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college -- that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared at me, incredulous, and said, "You mean they forget?"

--Howard Ikemoto

It's all fun and games til someone loses their row count.

--Anon. knitter

About suffering they were never wrong,

The old Masters: how well they understood

Its human position: how it takes place

While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along...

--W. H. Auden, Musée des Beaux Arts

I want some American food, dammit! I want French fries!

--Breaking Away

Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise.

--Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye

I did not achieve this position in life by having some snot-nose punk leave my cheese out in the wind.

--Ed Rooney, Ferris Bueller's Day Off by John Hughes

Am I no longer young, and still not half perfect? Let me

keep my mind on what matters,...

which is mostly standing still and learning to be

astonished.

--Mary Oliver, Messenger, from Thirst

If ud wan2 has cheezburger if u wuz nuthr kitteh, tehn let uthr kitteh has cheezburger 2.

--LOLCAT Bible, Luke 6:31

I look around at this world you're so eager to be a part of, and all I see's six billion lunatics looking for the fastest ride out. Who's not crazy? Look around - everyone's drinkin', smokin', shootin' up, shootin' each other or just plain screwing their brains out because they don't want 'em anymore. I'm crazy? Honey, I'm the original one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind 'cause at least I admit the world makes me nuts.

--Glory, Buffy, 5:21, "The Weight of the World"

--Do you think we should change cafés?

--It's easier to change your mind than your café.

--The Moderns

Onglets

9.12.06

Perspective

2 commentaires: