Mass Mutual

This is the newest adventure at our house. Ready, set, go, Art! You're going to be great.



(Friends and family: be sure to call Art when you need financial planning/investing/insurance help)

Second Hand Lions

I had heard good things about this movie and finally saw it this week.
I loved it!

Done with Violence

My friend, Jack, had a link to an article by Mark Morford on his weblog:

"Something has happened. Something has switched over in the past few years of my life, some sort of awareness has been raised and a threshold has been lowered and I now cannot help but see stark displays of brutish violence -- in movies, on TV, in real life -- as exactly what they are: Dark, dank, base energy, cancerous and poisonous, and I do not care where it is or if it's couched in the context of "raw" moviemaking or gritty urban inner-city tale. I am done."

I agree with what Jack said...it would be so nice if this could be the start of a new movement.

Thought of the Day:

"Let us learn to appreciate there will be times when the trees will be bare, and look forward to the time when we may pick the fruit."

~Peter Sellers (1925-1980) English Comic Actor

Thought of the Day:

"The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools."
~Confucius (551-479BC) Chinese Ethical Teacher, Philosopher

A favorite excerpt from "Gilead"

"In every important way we are such secrets from each other, and I do believe that there is a separate language in each of us, also a separate aesthetics and a separate jurisprudence. Every single one of us is a little civilization built on the ruins of any number of preceding civilizations, but with our own variant notions of what is beautiful and what is acceptable - which, I hasten to add, we generally do not satisfy and by which we struggle to live. We take fortuitous resemblances among us to be actual likeness, because those around us have also fallen heir to the same customs, trade in the same coin, acknowledge, more or less, the same notions of decency and sanity. But all that really just allows us to coexist with the inviolable, untranversable, and utterly vast spaces between us."
"Gilead" -- Marilynne Robinson

Thought of the day:

"Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect."
~Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949) American Novelist

Open minded discussion on ID vs. evolution

From a recent radio address by Dr. Rex M. Rogers,
"I’m not a proponent of evolution. But I’m not afraid for evolution, I.D., or creationism to be taught in a public school classroom. I’d contend that one cannot be well educated without knowing something about all of these views, whatever your conclusions about their veracity. In an open, unbiased investigation, truth takes care of itself. To science and religion I’d say open the door." more...

Quotation for Tuesday, March 7, 2006:

"'Well, Sir, if things are real, they're there all the time.'
'Are they?' said the Professor."

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

Thought of the Day:

"Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties."
~Erich Fromm

Left, Moderate, Right

From the blog of Dr. Rex M. Rogers, "The late Reverend E.V. Hill, senior pastor of the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, once said, 'I’ve had experience with the Left wing and I’ve had experience with the Right wing, and I’ve discovered those wings come from the same bird!' This dynamic, African American leader is gone now, but let’s hope his wisdom didn’t die with him." more...

Thought of the Day:

"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."
~ George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish-born English Dramatist, Novelist, Critic

"Promise of a New Day"

(fluffy clouds...in black and white)

Thought of the Day:

"Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they will not be here tomorrow. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again."
~ Og Mandino, 1923-1996 (Adapted) Author of 'The Greatest Salesman In The World'

Delayed reaction

My dear friend, Jim, was kind enough to point out to me that I failed to call sufficient attention to his birthday last Friday the 17th. For the record, I did call him on his birthday. He was down in New Orleans helping with hurricane cleanup...because he's just that kind of a guy.


And...happy 1st anniversary to Jim and Ann (Feb. 12)!

Word of the Day

susurrus \su-SUHR-uhs\, noun:
A whispering or rustling sound; a murmur.

Still, the breeze is soothing, as is the susurrus of the branches.
-- Michael Finkel, "Tree Surfing and Other Lofty Pleasures," The Atlantic, March 1998

He heard the susurrus of curtains luffed by the breeze.
-- Erik Larson, Isaac's Storm

Every time she walked into the back yard, she heard the susurrus of a white plastic bag stuck in a tree.
-- Me, for real

Birthday girl

Oops. I should've posted this last weekend.
Erica turned 11 on the 12th.

So totally adorable!

Today makes three months exactly that a white plastic bag has been stuck up in a tree in my backyard. Doesn't seem to matter what the weather does, this thing won't budge. It's far too high to reach to pull down, and it's not a tree one can climb (not me, anyway).

Hopefully when the leaves come back it will at least be hidden, if it doesn't come down before then. So let's see...March, April, May. Great...another three months.

Happy Birthday to me!