Stories and Wisdom from a Life Fully Lived

Category: Food for Thought

  • You PLAY Music

    You Play the Piano

    Alan Watts

                                                 English Spanish Gujarati Hindi                                              

    The existence, the physical universe is basically playful. There is no necessity for it whatsoever. It isn’t going anywhere. That is to say, it doesn’t have some destination that it ought to arrive at. 

    But it is best understood by analogy with music, because music, as an art form, is essentially playful. We say, “You play the piano.” You don’t work the piano.

    Why? Music differs from, say, travel. When you travel, you are trying to get somewhere. In music, though, one doesn’t make the end of the composition the point of the composition. If that were so, the best conductors would be those who played fastest. And there would be composers who only wrote finales. People would go to a concert just to hear one crackling chord… because that’s the end!

    Same way with dancing. You don’t aim at a particular spot in the room because that’s where you will arrive. The whole point of the dancing is the dance.

    But we don’t see that as something brought by our education into our conduct. We have a system of schooling which gives a completely different impression. It’s all graded and what we do is put the child into the corridor of this grade system with a kind of, “Come on kitty, kitty.” And you go to kindergarten and that’s a great thing because when you finish, you get into first grade. Then, “Come on” first grade leads to second grade and so on. And then you get out of grade school and you got high school. It’s revving up, the thing is coming, then you’re going to go to college… Then you’ve got graduate school, and when you’re through with graduate school, you go out to join the world.

    Then you get into some racket where you’re selling insurance. And they’ve got that quota to make, and you’re gonna make that. And all the time that thing is coming—It’s coming, it’s coming, that great thing. The success you’re working for.

    Then you wake up one day about 40 years old and you say, “My God, I’ve arrived. I’m there.” And you don’t feel very different from what you’ve always felt.

    Look at the people who live to retire; to put those savings away. And then when they’re 65, they don’t have any energy left. They’re more or less impotent. And they rot in some old peoples home, or senior citizens’ community. Because we simply cheated ourselves the whole way down the line.

    Because we thought of life by analogy with a journey, with a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at that end, and the thing was to get to that thing at that end. Success, or whatever it is, or maybe heaven after you’re dead.

    But we missed the point the whole way along.

    It was a musical thing, and you were supposed to sing or to dance while the music was being played.

    by Alan Watts, a British philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and populariser of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience.

  • It’s What You Scatter

    This has been around the internet before, but it is a marvellous story, and it will make you think.

    Charles Tutt

     “I was at the corner grocery store buying some early potatoes… I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily apprising a basket of freshly picked green peas. I paid for my potatoes but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas. I am a pushover for creamed peas and new potatoes. Pondering the peas, I couldn’t help overhearing the conversation between Mr. Miller (the store owner) and the ragged boy next to me. ‘Hello Barry, how are you today?’ ‘Hello, Mr. Miller. Fine, thank ya. Jus’ admirin’ them peas. They sure look good’ ‘They are good, Barry. How’s your Ma? ”Fine. Gittin’ stronger alla’ time.”Good. Anything I can help you with?”No, Sir. Jus’ admirin’ them peas.”Would you like to take some home?’ asked Mr. Miller.’No, Sir. Got nuthin’ to pay for ’em with.’ ‘Well, what have you to trade me for some of those peas?’ ‘All I got’s my prize marble here.’ ‘Is that right? Let me see it’, said Miller. ‘Here ’tis. She’s a dandy.’ ‘I can see that. Hmmmm, only thing is this one is blue and I sort of go for red. Do you have a red one like this at home?’ the store owner asked. ‘Not zackley but almost.’; ‘Tell you what. Take this sack of peas home with you and next trip this way let me look at that red marble’. Mr. Miller told the boy.’Sure will. Thanks Mr. Miller.’ Mrs. Miller, who had been standing nearby, came over to help me. With a smile, she said, ‘There are two other boys like him in our community. All three are in very poor circumstances. Jim just loves to bargain with them for peas, apples, tomatoes, or whatever. When they come back with their red marbles, and they always do, he decides he doesn’t like red after all and he sends them home with a bag of produce for a green marble or an orange one, when they come on their next trip to the store.’I left the store smiling to myself, impressed with this man. A short time later, I moved to Colorado, but I never forgot the story of this man, the boys, and their bartering for marbles. Several years went by, each more rapidly than the previous one. Just recently I had occasion to visit some old friends in that Idaho community and while I was there learned that Mr. Miller had died. They were having his visitation that evening and, knowing my friends wanted to go, I agreed to accompany them. Upon arrival at the mortuary we fell in line to meet the relatives of the deceased and to offer whatever words of comfort we could. Ahead of us in line were three young men. One was in an army uniform and the other two wore nice haircuts, dark suits and white shirts, all very professional looking. They approached Mrs. Miller, standing composed and smiling by her husband’s casket. Each of the young men hugged her, kissed her on the cheek, spoke briefly with her and moved on to the casket. Her misty light blue eyes followed them as, one by one, each young man stopped briefly and placed his own warm handover the cold pale hand in the casket. Each left the mortuary awkwardly, wiping his eyes. Our turn came to meet Mrs. Miller. I told her who I was and reminded her of the story from those many years ago and what she had told me about her husband’s bartering for marbles. With her eyes glistening, she took my hand and led me to the casket.’Those three young men who just left were the boys I told you about. They just told me how they appreciated the things Jim ‘traded’ them. Now, at last, when Jim could not change his mind about color or size…. they came to pay their debt.’ ‘We’ve never had much of the wealth of this world, ‘she confided, ‘but right now, Jim would consider himself the richest man in Idaho …’With loving gentleness she lifted the lifeless fingers of her deceased husband. Resting underneath were three exquisitely shined red marbles. The Moral: We will not be remembered by our words, but by our kind deeds. Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath. Today I wish you a day of ordinary miracles ~A fresh pot of coffee you didn’t make yourself…; An unexpected phone call from an old friend…. Green stoplights on your way to work….; The fastest line at the grocery store….; A good sing-along song on the radio.. Your keys found right where you left them. IT’S NOT WHAT YOU GATHER, BUT WHAT YOU SCATTER THAT TELLS WHAT KIND OF LIFE YOU HAVE LIVED!“

  • Curiosity

    It’s hard to overstate the value of curiosity. It’s what drives lifelong learning, fuels passion, and leads to new experiences. Albert Einstein, whose name is synonymous with genius, once said, “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

  • No Looking Back

    Always focus on the front windshield and not the rearview mirror. Colin Powell

  • Mistakes

    A mistake? Thank you!
    We all make mistakes. That statement is so pedestrian it’s hardly worthy running with. There is, however, a less obvious but very important aspect of mistakes and it is well worth considering: we never have a better learning opportunity than from mistakes. They may cost us money, time, and energy, but learning from them will save us much, much more.


    All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from them.
    – Winston Churchill


    What do you do when you learn to swim? You make mistakes. And what happens then? You make more mistakes and when you have made them all without drowning what do you find? That you can swim! Life is just the same as leaning to swim. Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no better way of learning.
    – Alfred Adler

    Bruno’s commentary
    I have made many mistakes. Some resulted in loss of money, some in personal setbacks. Some were minor, many were major and painful. Some time ago I opened a file called “Learning Experiences,” into which I put reports, notes, and thoughts regarding my mistakes. Over the years, this one file became many, until I needed a whole box to store my errors! From time to time I browse through these materials to remind myself of my mistakes and confirm what I have learned from them. This prevents me from repeating them.

    What did you learn from your most recent mistake? 

  • 2021 America

    Excellent portrayal of our lonely planet. Author unknown. Sad, yet quite erudite.
     
    “Men, like nations, think they’re eternal. What man in his 20s or 30s doesn’t believe, at least subconsciously, that he’ll live forever? In the springtime of youth, an endless summer beckons. As you pass 70, it’s harder to hide from reality.

    Nations also have seasons: Imagine a Roman of the 2nd century contemplating an empire that stretched from Britain to the Near East, thinking: This will endure forever…. Forever was about 500 years, give or take.
     
    France was pivotal in the 17th and 18th centuries; now the land of Charles Martel is on its way to becoming part of the Muslim ummah.
     
    In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the sun never set on the British empire; now Albion exists in a perpetual twilight. Its 95-year-old sovereign is a fitting symbol for a nation in terminal decline. 

    In the 1980s, Japan seemed poised to buy the world. Business schools taught Japanese management techniques. Today, its birth rate is so low and its population aging so rapidly that an industry has sprung up to remove the remains of elderly Japanese who die alone.
     
    I was born in 1933, almost at the midpoint of the 20th century—the American century. America’s prestige and influence were never greater. Thanks to the ‘Greatest Generation,’ we won a World War fought throughout most of Europe, Asia and the Pacific. We reduced Germany to rubble and put the rising sun to bed. It set the stage for almost half a century of unprecedented prosperity.
     
    We stopped the spread of communism in Europe and Asia, and fought international terrorism. We rebuilt our enemies and lavished foreign aid on much of the world. We built skyscrapers and rockets to the moon. We conquered polio and now COVID. We explored the mysteries of the Universe and the wonders of DNA… the blueprint of life. 


    But where is the glory that once was Rome? America has moved from a relatively free economy to socialism—which has worked so well NOWHERE in the world. We’ve gone from a republican government guided by a constitution to a regime of revolving elites. We have less freedom with each passing year. Like a signpost to the coming reign of terror, the cancel culture is everywhere. We’ve traded the American Revolution for the Cultural Revolution.
     
    The pathetic creature in the White House is an empty vessel filled by his handlers. At the G-7 Summit, ‘Dr. Jill’ had to lead him like a child.

    In 1961, when we were young and vigorous, our leader was too. Now a feeble nation is technically led by the oldest man ever to serve in the presidency.
     
    We can’t defend our borders, our history (including monuments to past greatness) or our streets. Our cities have become anarchist playgrounds. We are a nation of dependents, mendicants, and misplaced charity. Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels. 
    The president of the United States can’t even quote the beginning of the Declaration of Independence (‘You know — The Thing’) correctly. Ivy League graduates routinely fail history tests that 5th graders could pass a generation ago.  Crime rates soar and we blame the 2nd. Amendment and slash police budgets.
     
    Our culture is certifiably insane. Men who think they’re women. People who fight racism by seeking to convince members of one race that they’re inherently evil, and others that they are perpetual victims. A psychiatrist lecturing at Yale said she fantasizes about ‘unloading a revolver into the head of any white person.’ 

    We slaughter the unborn in the name of freedom, while our birth rate dips lower year by year. Our national debt is so high that we can no longer even pretend that we will repay it one day. It’s a $28-trillion monument to our improvidence and refusal to confront reality. Our ‘entertainment’ is sadistic, nihilistic and as enduring as a candy bar wrapper thrown in the trash. Our music is noise that spans the spectrum from annoying to repulsive.
     
    Patriotism is called insurrection, treason celebrated, and perversion sanctified. A man in blue gets less respect than a man in a dress. We’re asking soldiers to fight for a nation our leaders no longer believe in.

    How do nations slip from greatness to obscurity?

    • Fighting endless wars they can’t or won’t win
    • Accumulating massive debt far beyond their ability to repay
    • Refusing to guard their borders,
    • allowing the nation to be inundated by an alien horde,
    • Surrendering control of their cities to mob rule 
    • Allowing indoctrination of the young
    • Moving from a republican form of government to an oligarchy,
    • Losing national identity,
    • Indulging indolence,
    • Abandoning faith and family—the bulwarks of social order. 

    In America, every one of these symptoms is pronounced, indicating an advanced stage of the disease. Even if the cause seems hopeless, do we not have an obligation to those who sacrificed so much to give us what we had? I’m surrounded by ghosts urging me on: the Union soldiers who held Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, the battered bastards of Bastogne, those who served in the cold hell of Korea, the guys who went to the jungles of Southeast Asia and came home to be reviled or neglected.

    This is the nation that took in my immigrant grandparents, whose uniform most of my uncles wore in the Second World War, where they shed blood on foreign soil. I don’t want to imagine a world without America, even though it becomes increasingly likely.

    During Britain’s darkest hour, when its professional army was trapped at Dunkirk and a German invasion seemed imminent, Churchill reminded his countrymen, ‘Nations that go down fighting rise again, and those that surrender tamely are finished.’ 

    The same might be said of causes. If we let America slip through our fingers, if we lose without a fight, what will posterity say of us? 

    While the prognosis is far from good, only God knows if America’s day in the sun is over.”

  • Abortion

    Abortion is the Leading Cause of Death Worldwide, Killing 24 Million People This Year

    Nothing kills more people than abortion. Nothing.

  • Curiosity

    CuriosityDownload

  • Liberty and Freedom

    We typically consider liberty and freedom righteous tenets of human existence—ideals to be cherished and protected. But history is often complicated, and both liberty and freedom are subject to much philosophical, political, and legal debate. People have long sought to clarify and promote notions of liberty and freedom in society. In 1215, the Magna Carta declared the English sovereign to be subject to the rule of law, outlining certain liberties held by “free men.” Centuries later, in 1789, France created its Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and the United States penned its Bill of Rights.

    These and other such declarations inspired the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an international document created in 1948. Among its 30 articles are many noble concepts such as “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” and have the “right to life, liberty and security of person.” The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, however, remains a yardstick, a legally nonbinding blueprint for human rights. It is a target to strive for; something for the world to work toward. The people who drafted the Declaration—Eleanor Roosevelt among them—also recognized that freedom came as much from within as from without, and that personal and philosophical notions of liberty were just as important as the rule of law. The following quotes all attest to the principles of freedom and liberty—recognizing that we can take neither for granted.

    “There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.

    —Alexander Hamilton

    “Freedom lies in being bold.

    —Robert Frost

    “It does not take a majority to prevail…but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.

    —Samuel Adams

    “Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.

    —George Washington

    “Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.

    —Abraham Lincoln

    “Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.

    —Kahlil Gibran

    “For everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom. Restriction is justified only in so far as it may be needed for the security of existence.

    —Albert Einstein

    “All the greatest things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope.

    —Winston Churchill

    “I’d like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free and wanted other people to be also free.

    —Rosa Parks

    “Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit of human dignity.

    —Herbert Hoover

    “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

    —John F. Kennedy

    “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

    —Nelson Mandela

    “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.

    —Pope John Paul II

    “Freedom is never more that one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same.

    —Ronald Regan

    “What light is to the eyes—what air is to the lungs—what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.

    —Robert G. Ingersoll, American lawyer and writer

    “The function of freedom is to free someone else.

    —Toni Morrison

  • Woke

    From The Times of Israel

    To Antisemites, a Jew is a Jew is a Jew

    The Times of Israel
    By David Harris
    July 19, 2021    The antisemites came for Israelis.

    They relentlessly attacked the lone democracy in the Middle East and the realization of a 3,500-year-old vision, with the aim of its destruction. No sovereignty allowed for nearly seven million Jews! 

    They attacked Israelis at home and abroad through rockets and missiles, tunnels, kidnappings, plane hijackings, bus bombings, incendiary balloons, and embassy assaults. Meanwhile, their supporters and enablers added on 24/7 demonization, delegitimization, flotillas, BDS campaigns, and legal maneuvers.  

    But, hey, I wasn’t Israeli, so it didn’t really touch me. 

    For decades, they repressed millions of Soviet Jews. 

    They identified those Jews by internal Soviet passports that declared a person’s nationality based on the nationality of the parents — and, since the days of Stalin, Jews were officially deemed a nationality. No escape from that. Through scapegoating and vilification, they made life impossibly difficult for Jews when it came to education, jobs, street life, and more. And they sought to ensure that Jews had no access to accurate information about Judaism, Jewish history and tradition, Hebrew language, or Israel — in other words, cultural genocide. 

    But, hey, I wasn’t a Soviet Jew, so it didn’t really touch me. 

    They made life tough for Ethiopian Jews. 

    Frequently the targets of persecution and discrimination, Ethiopian Jews, one of the world’s most ancient communities, lived in constant fear of their non-Jewish neighbors, to the point that thousands died while seeking to escape on foot to neighboring Sudan — and eventually find refuge in the Israel at the center of their millennia-long prayers. 

    But, hey, I wasn’t an Ethiopian Jew, so it didn’t really touch me. 

    They emptied most Arab countries of their Jewish communities. 

    Hundreds of thousands of Jews, who had lived for centuries in what are today Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, all fled hatred, deadly mobs, and unending persecution. Only small communities remained in Morocco and Tunisia. And the Jewish populations in neighboring Iran and Turkey declined dramatically, while in Afghanistan the Jews are no more. 

    But, hey, I wasn’t a Mizrahi or Sephardic Jew, so it didn’t really touch me. 

    Beginning just over 20 years ago, the antisemites re-emerged with a vengeance in Europe. 

    Jews were targeted and killed in Paris, Toulouse, Brussels, Burgas, and Copenhagen. Synagogues and cemeteries were assaulted and desecrated. Jews became, once again, the targets of outlandish conspiracy theories. Anti-Israel protesters went into the streets of European cities waving the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah, genocidal terrorist groups. Some public schools became impossible for Jewish children to attend. A number of Jews, especially in France, had to change neighborhoods because of threats. Thousands of Jews made aliyah. 

    But, hey, I wasn’t a European Jew, so it didn’t really touch me. 

    They bombed the AMIA building, the heartbeat of Argentinian Jewry, the largest Jewish community in Latin America. (And the next day, they blew up a domestic flight in Panama, in which the majority of passengers were Jewish.) 

    Eighty-five people were killed in Buenos Aires. 300 were injured. The perpetrators were Iran and Hezbollah. To this day, the community is scarred, and no one sits in prison. 

    But, hey, I wasn’t a Latin American Jew, so it didn’t really touch me. 

    Holocaust denial skyrocketed, benefiting from the global reach of social media and fading memory of the actual events. 

    The Holocaust, the systematic murder of six million Jews, including 1.5 million children, by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, was variously denied, distorted, trivialized, rationalized, and politicized. 

    But, hey, my family wasn’t affected by the Holocaust, so it didn’t really touch me. 

    Religious Jews, identifiable by their distinctive manner of dressing, were targeted on the street, especially in New York, harassed, mocked, beaten, and pummeled. Walking to and from synagogue entailed risks. Praying in a sanctuary the same. Shopping in a kosher food store made one vulnerable. Dining at a kosher restaurant was no longer necessarily safe. So, too, gathering for a Hanukkah celebration. 

    But, hey, I wasn’t a religious Jew, so it didn’t really touch me. 

    The haters came for pro-Israel Jews gathering peacefully in the U.S. to show their support for Israel. 

    That was too much for the antisemites. Freedom of assembly be damned. The very sight of people waving an Israeli flag, supporting an American ally in the Middle East, opposing the unbridled terror of Hamas, or associating with Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, triggered a thuggish, violent response. Those Jews needed to be put in their place. 

    But, hey, I wasn’t pro-Israel, not even, heaven forbid, a Zionist, so it didn’t really touch me. 

    Pro-Israel students on numerous campuses were under assault in the classroom or on the quad. 

    Hostile faculty members, aggressive student groups, the impact of intersectionality, and some weak-kneed administrators combined to create toxic environments in a number of places. A few Jews were even being questioned about their eligibility for student government positions based solely on their identity. 

    But, hey, not only was I not one of “those” victimized students, but I avidly supported the victimizers, so it didn’t really touch me. 

    Wait a second. The walls are starting to close in. All those “woke” movements I support seem to find more and more reasons to point the finger at Jews, to blame Jews, to label Jews, to exclude Jews, to demonize Jews. 

    I thought I was ultra-safe in my space. I joined in all the ritualistic denunciations of Zionism. I always put the universal, not the particular, first and foremost. I distanced myself from those “clannish” Jews, those Jews who could never let go of their own history. It was a point of pride to put other Jews last, not first, in my list of priorities. 

    I was totally convinced the danger to everyone only came from the far-right, the neo-Nazis, the QAnon crowd. All my attention was single-mindedly focused on them.  

    I tried to show that this Jew could be relied on, even as I was being used, it turns out, to shield “my” own groups from charges of antisemitism. After all, if I was a part of the crowd, and often pushed to the front when convenient, how could they possibly be accused of antisemitism? 

    Oh my goodness, they’re now starting to question me. But, wait, there’s no one left to defend me. 

    Darn, why didn’t I bother to learn the history of the Jewish people? Antisemitism is antisemitism is antisemitism. Which means a Jew is a Jew is a Jew. 

    So, to the antisemites, my “good” (Jewish) credentials don’t count for much, at least not for long. No exemptions, it seems. 

    I thought I could save myself by, in effect, selling out millions of other Jews. Instead, I sold my dignity and got nothing, absolutely nothing, in return, except a punch-in-the-gut lesson in reality. 

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