Would you let a five-year-old child make important decisions affecting your future? We all did this.

Over the years, I’ve often thought of the following quote: “The child is father of the man.”  These words often haunt me deeply.  They capture the absurd but true notion that each of us is nurtured and tutored (and sometimes damaged or destroyed) by younger versions of ourselves.

At one time, I thought the meaning of this quote was obvious, but now I see that it isn’t obvious at all. By the way, my interpretation has nothing to do with the fact that the quote is written in a masculine version.  The quote could and should be translated to cover both male and female.  Something like, “The Child is the parent of the Adult.”

The quote appears as part of a poem by Wordsworth:

“MY HEART LEAPS UP WHEN I BEHOLD”

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

What, then, is the meaning of “”The child is father of the man”? Here is my interpretation. Think of the person you are today. Think of the life that you are currently living.  Consider both the predicaments you are now in and the joys you are now experiencing. Much of that (or all of that) has been made …

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Homegrown Cartoons

Back in the mid-1980’s, two graduates of Mercy High School (located in University City, Missouri) drew deeply on that Catholic education and decided to get together every week or so in order to create cartoons.   Whew!  That was more than twenty years ago.  Our plan was to make cartoons so insightful and/or funny that publishers would buy them and then we would never need to get real jobs.  It didn’t quite turn out that way.   Mike Harty was the guy who could draw and I was the guy who couldn’t, but who was willing to offer lots and lots of ideas until Mike found one worth drawing.  This brings to mind the idea of Linus Pauling:  “The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.”

Mike and I are both baby-boomers.  We drew these in the midst of Ronald Reagan’s second term–cold war politics often worked its way into our cartoons.  As did death and “meaning of life,” and God, and incongruity.  We really didn’t have a plan other than to do something that resonated.  After reading these, you’ll probably pick up on the reason why Mike and I weren’t as popular as the football stars in high school . . .

We worked at drawing and scheming and creating, week after week, until we had created a couple hundred cartoons.  I recently spoke with Mike and asked whether it would be OK to publish some of them at DI.  He was delighted.  Tonight, …

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More of my favorite quotes

I collect quotes (who doesn’t?). Really, it’s a good hobby. It’s cheap and often interesting. When they are really good quotes, it’s like a novel condensed to a mere sentence.

The first two of this set are about one of my favorite topics, rampant materialism. The others all relate closely to one another, but only if you have a wild imagination or if you think of a very broad topic like “meaning of life.” Without further ado:

Who is content with nothing possesses all things.
— Nicolas Boileau Despreaux

Wealth is the number of things one can do without.
— Feodor Dostoyevsky

The trouble is that you think you have time.
— Zen Master

Observe your enemies, for they first find out your faults.
— Antisthenes

A hole is nothing at all, but you can break your neck in it.
— Austin O’Malley

War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is. Revolution is when you decide that for yourself.
–Anonymous

Never mistake motion for action.
— Ernest Hemingway

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Some lessons I’ve learned to get me through life

I’m constantly learning valuable new lessons, but I generally find it difficult to recall any particular good lessons at any particular moment. I got the same problem with jokes. I’ve heard a lot of good jokes in my life, but if I’m put on the spot, I’m at a loss to remember more than one or two.

I thought it might be a good time to dig deep to try extra hard to remember a few of those lessons that have taken deep root with me. One shortcut would be to cite some of the books I have read which have provided some good lessons. For me, one of those books has been Inner Peace for Busy People, by psychologist Joan Borysenko (2001). She divided her book into 52 chapters, each of them offering a strategy for holding things together and finding peace in one’s life.

In chapter 1 Borysenko recommends that we pay attention to the Yerkes-Dodson law, which holds that increased stress makes us more productive only to a point, while further increases decrease productivity. Borysenko argues that many highly productive people operate “on the descending limb of the stress/productivity curve.” In short, they could be more productive if they could only push themselves a bit less, which would reduce the toll they are putting on their overstressed bodies.

In chapter 2 (of her 52 chapter book), Borysenko draws on the Buddhist saying that “Peace is like a sun that’s always shining in your heart. It’s just …

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What is life? What is the meaning of life?

Here are some of my favorite quotes on this ultimate topic of the meaning of life.  I pulled many of these quotes from my favorite quote site:  The Quotations Page, where you can find hundreds more quotes on the meaning of life” and thousands of quotes on numerous other topics.

Is there life before death?
Graffito, in Belfast

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950)

Life is a long lesson in humility.
James M. Barrie (1860 – 1937)

Life is a sexually transmitted disease.
R. D. Laing

Life is something that happens when you can’t get to sleep.
Fran Lebowitz (1950 – )
– More quotations on: [Life] [Sleep]

Life is just one damned thing after another.
Elbert Hubbard (1856 – 1915)

It’s not true that life is one damn thing after another; it is one damn thing over and over.
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 – 1950)

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950)

If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.
Tallulah Bankhead (1903 – 1968)

Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.
Brendan Gill

The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
Walter Bagehot (1826 – 1877)

A life

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