I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.
We are not the product of what is done to us. We are the product of our response to it.
Mendacity. According to the dictionary, mendacity is a word that means deceit, bluffing, sleight of hand, camouflage, concealment, but it comes from a Latin root, mendac, which means to put right. To make amends.
How can mendacity be an attempt to make things right?
Because even in mendacity, and even, perhaps, especially in mendacity, there is a belief that things can be better. Liars are optimists, not pessimists, and want so fervently to believe in their values and their world view that they will lie and deceive to prop things up.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
You want to be Commander-in-Chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it’s not politically convenient.
I guess it’s hard for people who are so used to things the way they are - even if they’re bad - to change. ‘Cause they kind of give up. And when they do, everybody kind of loses.
I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived.
I SOUND MY BARBARIC YAWP OVER THE ROOFTOPS OF THE WORLD.
We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, “O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless… of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?” Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?
I need some distraction oh beautiful release. Memory seeps from my veins, let me be empty and weightless and maybe I’ll find some peace tonight.
It requires less character to discover the faults of others than is does to tolerate them.
To “let go” does not mean to stop caring. It means I can’t do it for someone else.
To “let go” is not to cut myself off. It’s the realization that I can’t control another.
To “let go” is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands.
To “let go” is not to try to change or blame another. It’s to make the most of myself.
To “let go” is not to care for, but to care about.
To “let go” is not to fix, but to be supportive.
To “let go” is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.
To “let go” is not to be in the middle, arranging all the outcomes, but to allow others to affect their own destinies.
To “let go” is not to deny, but to accept.
To “let go” is not to nag, scold, or argue, but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
To “let go” is not to adjust everything to my desires, but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.
To “let go” is not to regret the past, but to grow and live for the future.
To “let go” is to fear less and to love more.
We are not the product of what is done to us. We are the product of our response to it.
And as we sat there listening to the carolers, I wanted to tell Brian it was over now and everything would be okay. But that was a lie, plus, I couldn’t speak anyway. I wish there was some way for us to go back and undo the past. But there wasn’t. There was nothing we could do. So I just stayed silent and trying to telepathically communicate how sorry I was about what had happened. And I thought of all the grief and sadness and fucked up suffering in the world, and it made me want to escape. I wished with all my heart that we could just leave this world behind. Rise like two angels in the night and magically… disappear.
