Soul Food: Week of November 10, 2024

 

Sunday: I could always live in my art, but never in my life. Ingmar Bergman

 

Monday: If you are not living on the edge, then, you are already taking too much space. Proverb

 

Tuesday: I think the rock ‘n roll myth of living on the edge is a pile of crap. Robert Smith

 

Wednesday: I was literally living on the edge of life, to the point where I didn’t know what was going to happen, not caring, taking chances & finally landing in prison, and once there, all my lines were cut. Christian Hosoi

 

Thursday: All of us older folks know all about living on the edge. We used to answer the phone without knowing who it was. Various

 

Friday: I walk slowly, but I never walk backwards. A. Lincoln

 

Saturday: I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents & innocent as doves. Matt. 10:16

 

Soul Food: Week of November 3, 2024

 

Sunday: Any man who took Lincoln for a simple-minded man would very soon wake up with his back in a ditch. William Billy Herndon

 

Monday: I am not bound to win [an election], but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. Abraham Lincoln

 

Tuesday: You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

 

Wednesday: Let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and his children’s liberty.

 

Thursday: Resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer.

 

Friday: The Union must be preserved in the purity of its principles.

 

Saturday: A house divided cannot stand.

 

Soul Food: Week of October 27, 2024

 

Sunday: When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in 7 years. Mark Twain

 

Monday: The years teach much, which the days never knew. Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Tuesday: The problem with getting older is that you may not be dying, but it keeps getting harder to live.

 

Wednesday: Science says life expectancy isn’t likely to increase much more since we aren’t built to last much longer than an Eveready battery. Yet, the human heart’s desire to live keeps on ticking. 

 

Thursday: Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional. Walt Disney 

 

Friday: Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter. Satchel Paige

 

Saturday: Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be. Robert Browning

 

Soul Food: Week of October 20, 2024

 

Sunday: When the decision is up before you – and on my desk I have a motto which says, “The Buck Stops Here” – the decision has to be made. Harry Truman

 

Monday: Old soldiers never die -- they just fade away. Gen. Douglas MacArthur

 

Tuesday: All men are created equal. Thomas Jefferson

 

Wednesday: A house divided cannot stand. Abraham Lincoln

 

Thursday: I have a dream … Rev Martin Luther King

 

Friday: Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country. John F. Kennedy

 

Saturday: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. Ronald Reagan

 

Soul Food: Week of October13, 2024

 

Sunday: The only reason for time is so everything doesn’t happen at once. Albert Einstein

 

Monday: Time, in fact, is not a constant, but a variable dependent upon speed & gravity.

 

Tuesday: Put another way, time is an illusion, in which both the future and the past are unchangeable and will play out exactly the way they were meant to.

 

Wednesday: When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes; when you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours. That’s relativity.

 

Thursday: Time to be alone, space to move about – these may well become the great scarcities of tomorrow.

 

Friday: Time & space always change, but there is something which is eternal & changeless. For example, the world & time, past or future, nothing exists for us in sleep. But we exist.

 

Saturday: Time, then, is relative. Its only worth depends upon what we do as it is passing.

 

Soul Food: Week of October 6, 2024

 

Sunday: Trying to separate politics from theology in these days of woke abortion, homelessness & open borders policies is like trying to ignore those bumps in crunchy peanut butter.

 

Monday: Radicals, blind guides & demagogues “eat & drink in the same type of echo chamber where they receive news.” Paraphrase of Prof. Jonathan Turley

 

Tuesday: The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God cannot be for & against the same thing at the same time. Abe Lincoln

 

Wednesday: I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. Evelyn Beatrice Hall citing Voltaire’s beliefs.

 

Thursday: Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. Silence Dogood, Benjamin Franklin

 

Friday: My freedom of speech stimulates your freedom to tell me I’m wrong. P.J. O’Rourke

 

Saturday: However … The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre & causing panic … The question in every case is whether the words are used in such circumstances & are of such a nature as to create a clear & present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent. Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

Soul Food: Week of September 29, 2024

 

Sunday: BECAUSE is a Biblical word. It is a key word to understanding God’s Kingdom as well as the universe He created.

 

Monday: It’s why the Father allows bad things to happen to good people … even to His only begotten Son.

 

Tuesday: It’s why we all have Free Will and, therefore, a purpose in Life.

 

Wednesday: It is also why we need Grace, given to us on Pentecost, to help navigate through inevitably very tough moments in our Lives.

 

Thursday: It’s why Love is so important to us …

 

Friday: … As is Commitment, Patience, Discipline & Faith.

 

Saturday: Why is that again, the Disciples asked Jesus before His Passion & their Redemption. BECAUSE, He reminded, It was the Father’s Will & we were never expected to rely on our own imperfect human understanding.

 

Soul Food: Week of September 22, 2024

 

Sunday: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Jesus Christ

 

Monday: Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace & gratitude. Denis Waitley

 

Tuesday: They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for. Tom Bodett

 

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. Abraham Lincoln. 

 

Wednesday: For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness. Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Thursday: You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. Albert Camus

 

Friday: Happiness is the best make up. Drew Barrymore

 

Saturday: Think of all the beauty still left around you & be happy. Anne Frank

 

Soul Food: Week of September 15, 2024

 

Sunday: Do not rely on your own understanding of life & death because the Almighty’s idea of your ideal fate are not always yours … let alone His only begotten Son’s, who (in Garden of Gethsemane) could have done without His crucifixion. Ecclesiastes paraphrased

 

Monday: Vanity of vanities. All things are vanity. 

 

Tuesday: What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun.

 

Wednesday: In much wisdom there is much sorrow; whoever increases knowledge increases grief.

 

Thursday: In the judgment place I saw wickedness & wickedness also in the seat of justice. 

 

Friday: The lot of mortals & the lot of beasts is the same lot; The one dies as well as the other. Both have the same life breath. Human beings have no advantage over beasts, [so] all is vanity

 

Saturday: And, [so], I saw that there is nothing better for mortals than to rejoice in their work, for this is their lot.

 

Soul Food: Week of September 8, 2024

 

Sunday: When the people learn they can vote themselves money it will herald the end of the Republic. Benjamin Franklin.

 

Monday: Those who own the country ought to govern it. John Jay

 

Tuesday: To be good and to do good is all we have to do. John Adams

 

Wednesday: It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one. George Washington

 

Thursday: Most bad government has grown out of too much government. Thomas Jefferson

 

Friday: If Tyranny & Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. James Madison

 

Saturday: The very definition of tyranny is when all powers are gathered under one place. James Monroe

 

Soul Food: Week of September 1, 2024

 

Sunday: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. Voltaire; Evelyn Beatrice Hall in 1906 book “The Friends of Voltaire.”

 

Monday: Everyone is in favor of free speech … but some people’s idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage. Winston Churchill

 

Tuesday: You are free to be a drunkard, an idler, a coward, a backbiter, a fornicator; but you are not free to think for yourself. George Orwell

 

Wednesday: Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom – and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech. Benjamin Franklin

 

Thursday: The way to make people trust-worthy is to trust them. Ernest Hemingway

 

Friday: Free Speech is a Human Right. Martin Luther King

 

Saturday: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God, Almighty, we are free at last! Martin Luther King; Spiritual

 

Soul Food: Week of August 25, 2024

 

Sunday: What if God was in earnest when he promised to give us Guardian Angels to be our spiritual soulmates, not unlike any unconditional loves we are fortunate to be blessed with while living on His earth?

 

Monday: Then, Guardian Angels may be like BFs, only we can’t return their favors?

 

Tuesday: The Guardian Angels may be like our protectors & have to work overtime trying to good us to do good when our free wills want to take a lesser path.

 

Wednesday: Certainly, Guardian Angels cannot tell a lie & are better at honesty than George Washington.

 

Thursday: Guardian Angels surely spit in the devil’s eye for us.

 

Friday: Nor do Guardian Angels cry, but they do console us when we need consolation.

 

Saturday: And, while Guardian Angels may not be seen, they are often felt.

 

Soul Food: Week of August 18, 2024

 

Sunday: The power of humility is that it brings us closer together & the role of every hero is to unite people, not divide them. Admiral William H. McRaven, The Hero Code

 

Monday: To be humble is to recognize that one’s intellect, one’s physical strengths, one’s wealth all pale when compared to the vastness, the complexity, the richness, the power, & the grandeur of the universe …

 

Tuesday: … [and] we are much more likely to see that our differences are infinitely small … 

 

Wednesday … [and] … are much more likely to see that our understanding is equally fraught & that our power to overcome even the tiniest challenges is similarly difficult.

 

Thursday: Humility is born of respect. Respect for what we do not know. Respect for what we cannot readily see.

 

Friday: But out of this humble approach to life, we are more likely to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.

 

Saturday: And we are much more likely to treat others as we would have them treat us.

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Soul Food: Week of August 11, 2024

Sunday: I yearn for friendship, but not at the cost of honesty, honor or health.

Monday: Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art … It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival. CS Lewis

Tuesday: Friendship’s the wine of life. Edward Young

Wednesday: A true friend is someone who is there for you when he’d rather be anywhere else. Len Wein

Thursday: Things are never quite as scary when you’ve got a best friend. Bill Watterson

Friday: Friends are the siblings God never gave us. Mencius

Saturday: The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend. Henry David Thoreau

 

Soul Food: Week of August 4, 2024

 

Sunday: Change your thoughts and you change your world. Norman Vincent Peale

 

Monday: The trouble with most of us is that we’d rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.

 

Tuesday: Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

 

Wednesday: Talk health, happiness & prosperity to every person you meet.

 

Thursday: It’s always too early to quit.

 

Friday: Dare to be what your best self knows you ought to be; dare to be a bigger human being than you’ve ever been.

 

Saturday: Feel God’s presence within you, lifting you up, and filling your heart with the deep abiding assurance that all is well.

 

Soul Food: Week of July 28, 2014

 

Sunday: Our history is not our destiny. Alan Cohen

 

Monday: Our problems are man-made, therefore, they may be solved by man. John F. Kennedy

 

Tuesday: It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves. William Shakespeare

 

Wednesday: Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. I can control my destiny, but not my fate. William Jennings Bryan

 

Thursday: Destiny is not fate, it’s navigation. Richie Norton 

 

Friday: The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It sometimes better to abandon one’s self to destiny.

 

Saturday: Before we were even born, He gave us our destiny; that we would fulfill the plan of God who always accomplishes every purpose & plan in his heart. Ephesians 1:11

 

Soul Food: Week of July 21, 2024

 

Sunday: The more we become dependent upon technology to run our lives, the more we’ll need to turn to the Grace of God to save us from its dark side as well as ourselves.

 

Monday: It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. Albert Einstein

 

Tuesday: Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master. Christian Lous Lange

 

Wednesday: If you want to do a job as a hobby, you can do a job. But otherwise, AI & robots will provide any goods & services that you want. Elon Musk

 

Thursday: New technology is not good or evil in and of itself. It’s all about how people choose to use it. David Wong

 

Friday: Technology: The knack of so arranging the world that we don’t have to experience it. Max Frisch

 

Saturday: All the technology in the world will never replace a positive attitude. Harvey Mackay

 

Soul Food: Week of July 14, 2024

 

Sunday: For every minute you remain angry, you give up 60 seconds of peace. Sigmund Freud, Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Monday: You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger. Buddha

 

Tuesday: When angry count to ten before speaking. When very angry, count to one hundred. Thomas Jefferson

 

Wednesday: Anger, resentment & jealousy doesn’t change the heart of others – it only changes yours. Shannon Alder

 

Thursday: Holding a grudge is like drinking poison & expecting the other person to die. Buddha, St. Augustine, Others

 

Friday: Temper’s the one thing you can’t get rid of by losing it. Dr. Buddy Rydell

 

Saturday: Fear is the path to the dark side … fear leads to anger … anger leads to hate … hate leads to suffering. Yoda

 

Soul Food: Week of July 7, 2024

 

Sunday: Even a dog knows the difference between being stumbled over and kicked. Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

Monday: We may be children all our lives, but we hopefully grow into partners with our spouse rather than parents.

 

Tuesday: The trouble with colleges today is that they are telling our kids what to think rather than teaching them how to think. Various.

 

Wednesday: How many of our lives are controlled by “The Law of Rising Expectations & Increased Disappointment”?

 

Thursday: Respect is like a boomerang that comes back to you. Mary Gormandy White

 

Friday: When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others. Dalai Lama

 

Saturday: I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university. Albert Einstein.

 

Soul Food: Week of June 30, 2024

 

Sunday: We feel free when we escape – even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire. Eric Hoffer.

 

Monday: Freedom is an illusion. It always comes with a price. Jonathan Stroud

 

Tuesday: The right to think is the beginning of freedom and speech must be protected from the government because speech is the beginning of thought. Justice Anthony Kennedy

 

Wednesday: The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

 

Thursday: The only real prison is fear and the only real freedom is freedom from fear. Aung San Suu Kyi

 

Friday: Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Saturday: There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives his life by the unfolding of his powers. Erich Fromm

 

Soul Food: Week of June 23, 2024

 

Sunday: God offered the dog He created a 20-year life so he could sit all day on the porch to bark at everyone who passed a master’s house but, alarmed at such monotony for so long, the dog begged to return 10 of those years. 

 

Monday: God agreed, then, offered the monkey He created a 20-year life so he could do endless tricks to entertain people He’d also create, but alarmed at such foolishness for so long, the monkey asked God if He’d also take back 10 of those years. 

 

Tuesday: God agreed again. God then offered the cow He next created a 60-year life span so she could have calves & give milk 24/7 to support a future farmer’s family, but alarmed at such a tough long life, she pleaded with God to take back 40 of those years. God agreed once more.

 

Wednesday: Finally, God got around to creating man & told him he could have a 20-year life span to eat, sleep, play & enjoy unlimited delights in a Garden of Eden, but disappointed at such a short party, he begged God to give him the 20, plus the 60 years the dog, monkey & cow gave back. God winced but said, “You asked for it.”

 

Thursday: That’s why for our first 20 years, we eat, sleep, play & enjoy ourselves …

 

Friday: … And, for the next 40 years we toil in the sun like cows to support our family; for the next 10 years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren; and for the last 10 years we sit on the porch & bark at everyone.

 

Saturday: THAT’s life explained in Biblical terms. Various authors

 

Soul Food: Week of June 16, 2024

 

Sunday: All men are created equal, if not in the exact same image & likeness of God.

 

Monday: The Founding Fathers envisioned a new world order based on the highest ideals of Western Civilization. They were not perfect & compromised its bold declaration on equality that later generations were inspired to correct, if imperfectly.

 

Tuesday: To woke progressives who argue America is all about White Supremacy, Freud might say they themselves are all about penis envy. 

 

Wednesday: Really, who would trade Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address for De Niro’s TDS rants?

 

Thursday: Four score & seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal …

 

Friday: A house divided cannot stand … We must all be friends, not enemies. Lincoln

 

Saturday: Whites did not build America alone. Nor did blacks or any other ethnic minority or race. WE ALL built America … together.

 

Soul Food: Week of June 9, 2024

 

Sunday: There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. Albert Einstein

 

Monday: Isn’t life, free will & grace miracle enough for human beings?

 

Tuesday: Miracles happen every day. Change your perception of what a miracle is & you’ll see them all around you. Jon Bon Jovi

 

Wednesday: To me, every hour of the day & night is an unspeakably perfect miracle. Walt Whitman

 

Thursday: The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it. Mother Teresa

 

Friday: Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant? Henry David Thoreau

 

Saturday: The miracle is not to walk on water or in thin air, but to walk on Earth. Walk in such a way that you become fully alive & joy & happiness are possible … [so that] every step you make on this Earth is performing a miracle. Thich Nhat Hanh

 

Soul Food: Week of June 2, 2024

 

Sunday – Saturday: It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust & seat & blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again & again, because there is no effort without error & shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold & timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt

 

Soul Food: Week of May 26, 2024

 

Sunday: I could always live in my art, but not in my life. Ingmar Bergman.

 

Monday: Didn’t P.T. Barnum tell us “There is a sucker born every minute” & suggest a Madoff is always at their service?

 

Tuesday: I landed in this country with $2.50 in cash & 1 million in hopes, and those hopes never left me … I went looking for trouble, and I found it. Charles Ponzi.

 

Wednesday: I rob banks because that’s where the money is. Willie Sutton

 

Thursday: Sorry I’m late. I was taking a crap. The Sting’s Henry Gondorff

 

Friday: I think [Robert E.] Lee should have been hanged. It was all the worse that he was a good man, had a good character and acted conscientiously. It’s always the good men who do the most harm. Henry Adams

 

Saturday: Unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. Jesus

 

Soul Food: Week of May 19, 2024

 

Sunday: Is it a paradox of human existence that we were made in the image & likeness of God but may wind up in hell for acting as if too proud of the fact?

 

Monday: How ironic that pride comes before the fall, yet it is pride that can help soften the blow.

 

Tuesday: Can God be awake & asleep at the same time?

 

Wednesday: Can water also be ice & steam?

 

Thursday: What makes an angel good or bad?

 

Friday: What exactly are “the better angels in our nature”?

 

Saturday: Are we tasked to forgive others 7 times pi?

 

Soul Food: Week of May 12, 2024

 

Sunday: Does “two” & “two” always equal “four” in this crazy world?

 

Monday: Media & experts pour out spin that can overwhelm our native intelligence. Revenue IQ

 

Tuesday: A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right. Thomas Paine

 

Wednesday: Expecting common sense from other people means you are lacking it yourself. Eugene O’Neill

 

Thursday: Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. Joseph Addison

 

Friday: It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense. Robert Green Ingersoll

 

Saturday: To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic & common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken, it will enter the realms of childhood visions & dreams. Giorgio de Chirico

 

Soul Food: Week of May 5, 2024

 

Sunday-Saturday: ANDRÉ: When I was at Findhorn I met this extraordinary English tree expert who had devoted himself to saving trees, and he’d just got back from Washington lobbying to save the Redwoods. And he was 84-years old, and he always travels with a backpack because he never knows where he’s going to be tomorrow.

 

And … he said to me, ‘Where are you from?’ And I said, ‘New York.’ And he said, ‘Ah, New York, yes, that’s a very interesting place. Do you know a lot of New Yorkers who keep talking about the fact that they want to leave, but never do?’ And I said, ‘Oh, yes.’ And he said, ‘Why do you think they don’t leave?’ And I gave him different banal theories. And, he said, ‘Oh, I don’t think it’s that way at all.’

 

He said, ‘I think that New York is the new model for the new concentration camp, where the camp has been built by the inmates themselves, and the inmates are the guards, and they have this pride in this thing that they’ve built – they’ve built their own prison – and so they exist in a state of schizophrenia where they are both guards & prisoners. And, as a result they no longer have – having been lobotomized – the capacity to leave the prison they’ve made or even to see it as a prison.’ And then he went into his pocket, and he took out a seed for a tree, and he said, ‘This is a pine tree.’ And he put it in my hand. And he said, ‘Escape before it’s too late.’ Wallace Shawn, My Dinner With André

 

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