Food for Thought: 17 More Quotes to Ponder

A variety of tasty appetizers for mental mastication. 

"Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction."
—John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“I’d like to see more optimism about the future!” 

–-Friedrich Merz

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
-– George Eliot

"Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance."
—Carl Sandburg

“The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom — these are the pillars of society.” 

—Henrik Ibsen, The Pillars of Society

"Advice is seldom welcome; and those who need it most always like it least." 
—Lord Chesterfield

“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”
– Buddha

"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
— Howard Thurman

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."
—Helen Keller

"Harmony and contrast. All beauty comes from these two things. You see, few objects are beautiful or ugly of themselves. To know that is the beginning of being an artist."
—Vatel

“Boredom may become Western man’s greatest source of unhappiness."
--Robert Nisbet

“When we get what we want, we always get more than we bargained for.”

—Journal Note

“... millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”
—Susan Ertz

"I am convinced that boredom is one of the greatest tortures. If I were to imagine Hell, it would be the place where you were continually bored."
–Erich Fromm

"Flattery is counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation."
-- La Rochefoucauld 

"Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct."

—Thomas Carlyle

“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”

—Martin Luther King Jr.

Do you have a thought provoking quote you'd like to share?

Please leave it in the comments.

The Week

Can't believe how fast this one flew. Maybe a re-cap is in order.

Sunday, the regular season ended for Major League Baseball with the Twins ahead of the Chicago White Sox by a half game. Twins fans had little to cheer about after that. Chicago beat Detroit on Monday in a makeup game and rose to the occasion in a one game playoff Tuesday to put the final nail in the coffin for the Twins who have gone home to replay a season's worth of muffed opportunities in their heads.

Meanwhile, on Wall Street, a hurricane of turmoil hit the financial markets with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling near 700 points as Congress rejected the bailout plan that was being hammered together. Here in Ennyman's Territory it was Short Story Monday, and the second act of Terrorists Preying appeared.

Tuesday the markets experienced exuberance for a day as fireworks and "buying opportunities" lit up the sky. Emotion reigns, evidently. These market moves can't be in any way related to rational evaluations. So, life goes on.

As I woke that morning y own mind was filled with thoughts about flow. Here are my notes which became the initial basis of my Flow entry Tuesday.

Flow
Siddhartha
a river runs thru it
Watching the River Flow
meditations on how rivers flow…
time changes flows
rivers cut through rocks, or meander lazily through flatlands,
create isolated oxbow lakes

That evening I watched the movie Under the Volcano, which I had ordered through Blockbuster online more than ten months ago. Long waiting list? Or just one copy in circulation? It was worth the wait. Brought back memories of our year in Mexico, the good parts. Favorite off-the-beaten-path places: Guanajuato and Catorce. Guanajuato used to be one of the main silver mines in Mexico and rich Spaniards sought to recreate their much loved Barcelona. Unique city.

Catorce was a mine near Matehuala, a small city where Pancho Villa had a hideaway. Catorce means "14" which was the number of the mine. You had to drive through a half-mile long (or more) one lane tunnel to reach the abandoned village. The tunnel had been dug through a mountain. There stationed a man at each end who would call the other end to ask if the tunnel were clear before letting someone drive in. There were a couple very large modern homes to the left as you emerged from the tunnel, and an abandoned village on the right, all the homes connected by a network of roofless walls, rooms and corridors. Goats ambled about, and probably ghosts as well.

Since that time the tourists have apparently discovered this place and are writing about it on the Internet. Here's a New York Times travel review about this remote lost village.

Early Wednesday I wrote about bees, though daily a swarm of other potential themes seem to compete for my attention. Here are some notes jotted down as a potential blog entry catalyst, but it didn't get anywhere.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Save America
As everyone knows a wave of hysteria hit Wall Street Monday (9-29) as the Dow dropped an eyeball popping 700 points
or near 7 percent…

22+% in 1929

If we could turn all of our bicycles into power generating devices….
Then for one hour each day we could all get on our bicycles and power up the grid so that enough power is produced for a radio signal to reach all of the free world for three minutes during which time the President would give us all a pep talk to keep us going for another day.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Wednesday evening I prepared my review of Under the Volcano while watching Vatel, one of my favorite all time movies, starring Gerard Depardieu. When I am not distracted by other themes I will write about it sometime. In the meantime, here are a pair of great lines by Depardieu, who plays the central character Vatel.

“The poor are honored to be the king’s creditors. Both my parents were so honored they died of it.” ~ Vatel

“Harmony and contrast, all beauty comes from those two things.” ~ Vatel

Thursday night Susie and I took in the Palin / Biden debate. Afterwards, while prepping photos for faster downloading on the blog, I began watching Good Night & Good Luck, a truly compelling film, written and directed by George Clooney. David Straithern literally becomes Edward R Murrow, the David who with truth and courage as his only weapons stood up to Goliath, the Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Before the night was over, Chicago's Cubbies had self-destructed yet again. So dominant throughout the season, it has appeared to be "the year" they finally put it all together. Now, down two games to none in the playoffs, Cub fans chew their nails, toss and turn on their beds, and strive to keep it together, hoping against hope the team will get loose and play like the champions they ought to be. Go Cubs!

This week's reading material during my commute has been China Road by NPR's Rob Gifford. It is a great book and comes to you highly recommended. Gifford at one time hoped to be a missionary to China, following the footsteps of the man who inspired him in his youth, Hudson Taylor. But, as the two roads diverged before him, Gifford's pastor suggested he might achieve greater things by not taking that path. Indeed, this book is testament that he has found a much larger hillside from which he can shine his light... rather than having it hidden in a far corner of the Gobi Desert.

Of Gifford's book and China there is much more to share... and I promise you I will indeed write more about it soon. In the meantime, it is Friday evening, and a weekend awaits with its manifold projects.

Due to a hard frost this morning I had to scrape ice off the car windows in order to drive to work. This is a signal that it is time to clear away space in the garage again, to tuck the lawnmowers into their corners, cover a few windows and button up the house for winter.

There is much more happening in the world than we've even hinted at here.... but you don't need me to tell you about it. Just get your Google going.

Marie Antoinette: Life in a Bubble

A few brief comments on Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette starring Kirsten Dunst, which I finished watching last night.

The cover of this DVD really does tell the story. A Hollywood teen plays at living inside the royal courts of France two centuries past. The prominence of bright pinks and pastel blues carries throughout the film. It's all about style, powder, silks and gowns, and excess.

The movie begins with young Marie (Dunst) being requested by her mother to be wed to young Louis. Initially the film focuses more on the humiliations of being the dauphine than on the power she had. Ultimately, the film never deviates from its one aim, to show how Marie Antoinette lived in her strange royal world.

As the film goes along, however, I could not help but make comparisons to another film about how the rich lived in days gone by, the superbly crafted and beautifully tragic Vatel, starring Gerard Depardieu. Vatel reveals what continuously remains absent in Coppola's film, the contrast between the privileged and the impoverished.

There is one brief scene in Antoinette that refers to her infamous remark, "Let them eat cake." The spin here is that she never made the statement and dismissed any need to have to defend herself in the press. It's very possible that this was the case, but who can really say.

Coppola obviously did not wish for her heroine to be stained by all the grittiness that led to the French Revolution. Did she believe Antoinette to be above it? The way the film is told, I did feel sympathy for the young queen. But eventually, thoughtful viewers need more.

The sets are fabulous, the preening and pomp delicious, the re-creation of life in a Royal Court exotic… but as the film moves forward one gets the sense of being in a bubble. There is no true sense of historical context other than very brief hints.

The portrayal of her distracted husband Louis is likewise unreliable, as his legendary sexual dalliances would attest. The man portrayed here is simply too much a simpleton to be believed.

Those who know nothing of the real Marie Antoinette story would never surmise from the way this film ends that she is heading toward a beheading. Nor why such an end is even awaiting her. But then, such gruesome details might mar the delight modern audiences derive from this kind of period piece.

If you like a period story with reality as its base, the film to see is Vatel. Marie Antoinette, for me, got lost in translation.