Category Archives: philosophy

anyway

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Sometimes I go to this church.  I always say it isn’t really a church.  It is somewhere people go to feel welcome and exchange ideas.   I like that it makes me think, even on a Sunday morning.  It clears the cobwebs out of my head.

Like this poem, which was rewritten and posted on the wall of Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Calcutta.

The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

© Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968, renewed 2001

photo essay

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Here is a beautiful photo essay by Philip Toledano.  It is called Days with My Father, and it is pictures and words about Philip’s dad, who is 98 years old.  Philip is a New York based photographer.

Days with my Father is a lovely (but sad) piece about being a child of a parent who is becoming elderly.  It beautifully honours Philip’s dad in the most authentic and true way.  Read it and weep, especially if you are over 40, because I know you have aging parents/grandparents.

who does she think she is?

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There is a new DVD coming out about being a mother and an artist.  It is cleverly called:  Who Does She Think She Is?

In conjunction with this, my husband sent me this quote from Einstein:
“Not everything that counts can be counted,
and not everything that can be counted counts…”
Albert Einstein

I do a fair amount of what I term unpaid work, too – volunteering on a Steering Committee, Advisory Committee, doing presentations, co-coordinating a program for a non-profit organization.  And of course, mothering work is totally unpaid too. 

And in writing, it is not only the paid work that is of value.   Writing from the heart without editorial guidelines and deadlines can produce very important work.  Alas, as with any art…unsold work doesn’t put food on the table!  Aye, there’s the rub.