Stepping Stones

ByHeather

Whatever you’re doing now is just a stepping-stone to the next project or adventure. Any rut you get into is one you can get yourself out of.

— Timothy Ferriss, 4-Hour Work Week

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    2009 Quote a Day Calendar

    ByHeather

    I have always loved to collect intangible things. One of my favorites collections consists of opening lines of great novels. Who can forget “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . . ” Other greats include “Who is John Galt?” Or “Howard Rork laughed.” My all-time favorite opening line comes from Pat Conroy’s Prince of Tides: “My wound is geography.”

    But lo, I digress. By far my largest stash of immaterial things are the countless quotes, words of wisdom, poems, and pithy sayings I have collected over the years. I have a library card catalog filled with hand written 3×5 cards with quotes accumulated from the days before computers had entered my life. In the intervening years I have made several vain attempts to catalog my precious to no avail. The first installment came and went in a HyperCard stack that is long gone. A Microsoft Access database of pearls of wisdom sits unused on an old Windows machine somewhere in the house. …

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    Celebrate art and culture. It defines who we are.

    ByHeather

    When you live in times of authoritarian rule one of the first things that end up in the cross hairs is culture. We believe firmly that artists and writers and dramatists and actors and musicians play a vital role in defending the integrity of who we are as human beings.

    — Jeremy Scahill, on the Trump’s Cabinet of Killers and Why Orange is the New Anti-Black episode of The Intercepted.

    I have never been more grateful for organizations like the ACLU and the plethora of lawyers we have in this country. Likewise, I am inspired by the power of our marches and protests as we stand up for our values. But, in addition to the direct tangible actions we can take, we also need a 100 million voices writing and singing and laughing and, in general, sounding our barbaric yawps over the roofs of the world.

  • Hemingway on Writing

    ByHeather

    A writer’s problem does not change. He himself changes and the world he lives in changes but his problem remains the same. It is always how to write truly and, having found what is true, to project it in such a way that it becomes part of the experience of the person who reads it.

    — Ernest Hemingway

    The writing bug has been tickling my fingertips again. What do I know to be true? And, having discovered what I know to be true, how do I explain it in such a way that the person who reads it understands it?

    Stay tuned . . .

  • Christopher Hitchens’ Guiding Principles

    ByHeather

    Beware the irrational, however seductive.

    Shun the ‘transcendent’ and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself.

    Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others.

    Don’t be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish.

    Picture all experts as if they were mammals.

    Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity.

    Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence.

    — Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011)

    Your time of silence has come too soon. Thanks for the valiant fight.

    (Thanks to A.Word.A.Day for the reference.)

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