"Joel, you wanna know something? Every now and then say, 'What the fuck.' 'What the fuck' gives you freedom. Freedom brings opportunity. Opportunity makes your future."
-- Miles

King Solomon (so legend tells us) wanted to teach Benaiah ben Yehoyada, his most trusted advisor, a lesson in humility. He summoned him and said that he wanted the minister to bring him a magic ring -- one that would make a happy man sad to look at it, and that would make a sad man happy to look at it.
He gave Benaiah six months, until Sukkot, to ( Read more... )

Hipsters, flipsters, and finger-poppin' daddies,
Knock me your lobes,
I came to lay Ceasar out,
Not to hip you to him.
The bad jazz that a cat blows,
Wails long after he's cut out.
The groovey is often stashed with their frames,
So don't put Caesar down.
The swinging Brutus hath laid a story on you
That Caesar was hungry for power.
If it were so, ( Read more... )

"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."
-- G.K. Chesterton

And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love you make.

"His father had made it clear that the money for college wasn't there ( Read more... )

I finally have my proper copy of the Tao Te Ching again. It's a ( Read more... )

"You know what I'd like to be?" I said. "You know what I'd like to be? I mean if I had my goddam choice?"

"What? Stop swearing."

"You know that song 'If a body catch a body comin' through the rye? I'd like -- "

"It's 'If a body meet a body coming through the rye!" old Phoebe said, "It's a poem. By Robert Burns."

"I know it's a poem by Robert Burns."

She ( Read more... )

I wish we could have made it at least another week. It would have been nice to make it a whole year.
You get, of course, lyrics. What else?
Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road.
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go.
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why.
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time.

It' ( Read more... )

Scorpion approaches Frog and makes its small request. Carry me across the stream, Scorpion says.
(This is happening. You know this. The old stories happen and always happen.)
No, Frog says, backing away fearfully. You will sting me and I will die.
Why would I? asks Scorpion, if I do that, we will both drown and die.
Frog is slightly reassured, and ( Read more... )