More than portals to the world

Panes of glass have allowed humankind a material for physical and philosophical utilization.  We look through them.  We are seen through them.  Some are colored.  Some distort views.  Finding quotes over the past 9 weeks have allowed me windows into different points in time.  So the last theme for this challenge is windows.

“Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.” - Kahlil Gibran

“A house without books is like room without windows.” - Horace Mann

“I need no dictionary of quotations to remind me that the eyes are the windows of the soul.” - Max Beerbohm

 “Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.” - Mark Twain

 How do you use windows?

Eight hours a day

Another week at work is done.  And a busy week it was.  So today we'll look at work.

“One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.” - Bertrand Russel

“In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it.” - John Ruskin

How has your work been lately?

Well spoken

I have tried not to use my favorite authors too much.  For the author below, I have already used two quotes, but have not dedicated a post to him.  I started readying him in high school and, good or bad, he taught me to look at life from different angles.  I may not have always agreed with his point of view, but I had to respect it for what he taught.  I dreamed of meeting him one day.  I doubted the conversation would be intellectual, from my side at least, but I was hoping for the chance to see.  So when he passed in 2007 I realized I had met him through his numerous works which I had read, and that would be the part of him I took forward in life.

"Where is home? I've wondered where home is, and I realized, it's not Mars or someplace like that, it's Indianapolis when I was nine years old. I had a brother and a sister, a cat and a dog, and a mother and a father and uncles and aunts. And there's no way I can get there again." - Kurt Vonnegut, "The World according to Kurt" in Globe and Mail [Toronto] (2005)

What point in time is home for you?

Come again another day

I'm fairly surprised I haven't written about this yet.  While I've done some posts about weather, I have not done one about the little droplets of water that fall from the sky.  Today started off nice and chilly, but within a few hours, the rain clouds came and have not let up for long.  While looking for quotes on this, I started to love the dual meanings.  So here are three quotes to ponder.  Try to link them to aspects or people in your life.

“The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.” - G. K. Chesterton

“Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.” - Roger Miller

Do you walk in the rain or get wet?

 

Tear down that wall

Language, cultural, political, geographical, technological...we come across barriers throughout our daily existence.  Within the past two days, 4 out of those 5 have created conflicts for me.  After reading the quote below and thinking about it, I do wonder if both sides need to create the barrier or if it is one sided at times.

“There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.” - Ronald Reagan

Have you put up any barriers lately?

Nighty night

My sleep patterns have been off a bit lately.  I get sleep, but at different intervals and with various results.  I'm still working on finding the right formula.

“Turn resolutely to work, to recreation, or in any case to physical exercise till you are so tired you can't help going to sleep, and when you wake up you won't want to worry.” - B. C. Forbes

How has your sleep been?

Gossip has it

True or false, I've been subject to my fair share of rumors throughout life.  We rarely are the cause of them and rarely have control of them.  And the speed at which they can be communicated is staggering.

“Trying to squash a rumor is like trying to unring a bell.” - Shana Alexander

Have you ever succesfully squashed a rumor?

 

Activity in the mind

I've seen two movies today where insanity is a theme in them.  In both, the heroes are not really insane or break beyond it.  So it seemed appropriate to find a quote for it.

“Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtaxed.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

 Is your mind overtaxed?

Every which way

No theme for today.  Just an amusing one going into the weekend.

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” - Friedrich Nietzsche 

Which is your way?

 

Kind to all

A neighbor was having work done on their building at 7am this morning.  In my area, that is not uncommon.  The workers try to start as early as they legally can so they can move on to the next job and get home early to repeat the next day.  The problem was that the tenant of the building was not told by the landlord that work was going to be done.  Instead waking to the sound of their alarm clock, it was the sounds of a ladder being banged around and excessive cursing, and I do mean excessive, that stirred them.  Some times a little courtesy can go a long way.

“Courtesies cannot be borrowed like snow shovels; you must have some of your own” - John Wanamaker 

What lack of courtesy have you seen lately?

Not the phoenix

“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” - Jack London

Do that thing you do

Numerous times throughout the year and in various locations on the globe, people do things that they did the year before.  Many times, they're not really sure why they're doing it.  They saw people doing it last year, thought it looked interesting, and wanted to join in this year.  Some by peer/family pressure.  Some by themselves.  But year after year, town after town, house after house, people are bringing life to something from the past.  So today, when a certain celebration is going on throughout the world, let's take a look at traditions.  And for good measure, a funny by Mark Twain at the end.

“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.” - G. K. Chesterton

“What an enormous magnifier is tradition! How a thing grows in the human memory and in the human imagination, when love, worship, and all that lies in the human heart, is there to encourage it.” - Thomas Carlyle

“Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.” - Mark Twain

What traditions do you do that are hard to justify?

Fascination of life

 The dichotomy of life.

"Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating. " - Karl Von Clausewitz

 Which do you find more of in your life?
 

One missed

I forgot to post an entry yesterday.  I think I thought about it in the morning and then became so consumed with my day that I didn't do it.  This has happened a few times this past week where I become busy with things and forget an event or deadline.  I had the time yesterday.  At one point I was on my computer for a good twenty minutes, but did not remember to get a quote.  I could also cheat, backdate a post and be able to complete the 9 weeks intact, but that would not be true to myself.  So today's quote is on forgetfulness.

“Through memory we travel against time, through forgetfulness we follow its course." - Joseph Joubert

Have  you been following time recently and forgotten something important?

Gasping

Some friends have been feeling a bit anxious about aspects of their lives lately.  Whether we know it or not, I think anxiety hits all of us at some point in our life.  So today is a look at that.

“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” - Soren Kierkegaard

“Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today's jobs with yesterday's tools.” - Marshall McLuhan

Which makes you more anxious, your social or work life?

To laugh

This day has unexpectedly been filled with humor at random turns.  And I appreciate that very much.  So today I won't quote jokes, but we'll talk about them.  OK, the second quote may be a joke, but I think it's a fact as well.

“The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.” - David Ogilvy

“A civil servant doesn't make jokes” - Eugene Ionesco

“A joke is not a thing but a process, a trick you play on the listener's mind. You start him off toward a plausible goal, and then by a sudden twist you land him nowhere at all or just where he didn't expect to go.” - Max Eastman

Had any unexpected laughter today?

Building on yesterday

The day after meetings tend to provide more entertainment.  People dissecting every move and word from other attendees.  This can go on for days.  It helped fuel today's quote.

“In some situations, if you say nothing, you are called dull; if you talk, you are thought impertinent or arrogant. It is hard to know what to do in this case. The question seems to be, whether your vanity or your prudence predominates.” - William Hazlitt

Vanity or prudence?

Tick Tock

Meetings are always an adventure.  People come into them with different ideas of what the agenda really is.  Throughout, people talk, give looks and act in all sorts of ways.  In the end, some people will think it was worth while, as others think it was a waste of time.

“When I give a lecture, I accept that people look at their watches, but what I do not tolerate is when they look at it and raise it to their ear to find out if it stopped.” - Marcel Achard

Had any watch looking meetings lately?

On cue

Just as movie editors know how to combine a scene with a music track to evoke emotion, life can match two elements that bring forth an emotional response.  Like how hearing the right song first thing in the morning can get the rest of your day going great.  Or the opposite.  So today we're looking at timing.  And try to look at this quote beyond it's military meaning.

“You win battles by knowing the enemy's timing, and using a timing which the enemy does not expect.” - Miyamoto Musashi

How is your timing with events in your life?

A rustle in the trees

 The wind yesterday was something we haven't seen in a long while here.  Something oddly comforting to hear the wind rustling through the trees.  Especially in the middle of winter with no leaves on them and a light snow blowing through.  So today's theme is wind, but with a motivation twist and from the 1st century.

“If a man does not know what port he is steering for, no wind is favorable to him” - Seneca

Do you know what port you're headed for?