Wisdom

Since I have a lot more time on my hands these days, I do things like google "quotes" and read what follows. Here are some of my favorites from my hour of quote reading last night:

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.

To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.

Be content to seem what you really are.

-Marcus Aurelius

I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.

-Abraham Lincoln

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.

-Confucius

Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.

Information is not knowledge.

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

Love is a better teacher than duty.

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it.

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

-Albert Einstein

Meaning.

A funny thing happens when you aren't sharing your thoughts. They either tend to lose meaning or you tend to lose them altogether. So, here I am sharing my thoughts in hopes that they will always be meaningful to me.

I've been thinking a lot about "meaning" lately. "Purpose" might also serve as a useful synonym, but I like "meaning" even more. It feels more fundamental. Where do we get purpose and meaning in our lives? I'd realized sometime last week that my life didn't feel very meaningful. Going to DC this past weekend made me realize why that was.

I think meaning in life is derived from the level to which we give ourselves to others. We are infants when it comes to trying to supply our own lives with meaning. We need the help and support of others if we want to feel like life has any purpose. When others are absent from our lives, the meaning we felt when they were present disappears slowly after their leaving.

But life feels so meaningful now!

A promise to an amazing girl is filling my life with so much purpose right now that I can hardly contain it! I am lucky to be loved. I am lucky to be able to love. And love her I do.

And love is the greatest meaning I can possibly imagine.

No Heaven

The point is not that God will refuse you admission to His eternal world if you have not got certain qualities of character: the point is that if people have not got at least the beginnings of those qualities inside of them, then no possible external conditions could make a ‘Heaven’ for them—that is, could make them happy with the deep, strong, unshakable kind of happiness God intends for us.

-C.S. Lewis

Kitchen Table Wisdom

I've had this book for over a year now. It can be found anywhere among my possessions, at any time. Like a sweet tasting snack, I find myself running to it in times of craving, and dropping it along the byway once satisfied and satiated. It was written by a woman M.D. who, for many years, has worked as an end-of-life counselor to those with terminal illness. She is one of the most beautiful writers I've come upon, and her life has been one of ebbing disheartenment and flowing inspiration. I marked down a quote in a previous chapter that I hadn't thought about for a while until recently, when I read a friend's blog about the power of those around us. The people around us hold such power in our lives. The quote is about unconditional love, and the power it has on us, and I really love it.

"The null hypothesis is a research principle that applies only when one is studying universal laws and principles, forces that hold in all circumstances and at all times. It states that should one find only a single instance in which the law does not hold, the law itself has been invalidated.

"There are laws of our inner world that bind each of us as firmly as gravity, beliefs we carry about ourselves and about life in general that we experience as true in all conditions and at all times. A feeling of personal unworthiness is one such inner law.

"One moment of unconditional love may call into question a lifetime of feeling unworthy and invalidate it."

I have noticed in myself at times the desire to withhold love from someone to show them that I disapprove of their actions or attitude. A glance or a silence is more than adequate to convey withheld love. I don't like it at all, but I do it. Love is such an easy something to give, and it is a healing-something. I think the power of unwarranted, even unreciprocated love expressed will have such lasting power if we are constantly in practice of it.

If you're reading this blog (and if I know your blog URL) you can be assured that I've been reading your blog, as well. Just because I've been strapped for blogging inspiration, doesn't mean I don't religiously follow your blog--because chances are, I do. And I enjoy them always.

a mess

"It is one of the severest tests of friendship to tell your friend his faults. So to love a man that you cannot bear to see a stain upon him, and to speak painful truth through loving words, that is friendship."

Henry Ward Beecher

It is a very hard thing to have to watch the faults of loved ones, and the faults of your own self, come to light. We are sometimes compelled to watch, partly unable to look away from finding that those you love are human just as you are--but mainly we are compelled by slowness of foot, not able to run fast enough away from the mess to avoid the sad revelation. Life recently seems set for such a course - and it is a sad, hopeless one.

I am, however, convinced of the above quote. Love is expressed in friendship, friendship is tested in times of sad revelation. Love is tested by the faults of those nearest me - the faults that cause pain to those nearest us both. To see a loved one's faults, to know them so closely, to share those same faults, and then to press forward in hope and truth. That is what I want from this life. I want love. I want friendship. I want sad revelation to be an impetus for that. But I find I am much more apt to speak out over the stains on a friends coat or pant and leave the stains of the soul untouched. It is a sad truth to find a stain on a friend's soul and live without being able to help one bit.

I would like to be a better friend. Oh, let me love deeply enough to see the soils on my friends, let them see mine, and let us lovingly speak the painful truth.

Finals

"It is not from nature, but from education and habits, that our wants are chiefly derived."

-Henry Fielding

I've been having one of those semesters where my "desired profession" changes every week. I think so far I've traveled from doctor, to professor, to chef, to forest ranger, to farmer. Where am I now? I currently reside somewhere between traveling salesman and circus performer.

This week brings finals and lots of studying. I walked into the office of my housing management yesterday to sign a new contract. I got the clipboard and was looking over the information as I duly listened to a conversation between a girl and the receptionist. The girl was refused a housing contract for the summer because she wasn't a BYU student (BYU usually acts as a co-signer). The receptionist rudely told her that, even though she worked full-time, the management company was unwilling to give her a contract. The tone of the receptionist to this girl's trouble was pronounced indifference. I was immediately turned off, and mildly infuriated. I stood up, placed my clipboard on the counter and informed the receptionist that I didn't feel their apartments and services were worth the prices listed on the sheet.

I just find no need for rudeness in life. I don't support it, and I hope not to indulge in it. However I may soon find myself less willing to indignantly boycott rudeness when my housing contract expires next week.

Things for Summer

I am excited at the possibilities for this summer (all minus the prospect of taking two "heightened" semesters of physics). I want to volunteer and do things, after all, I have someone to do them with! I want to become involved in things I care about, or am at least interested in. Why should I think I'll do lot of great things with my life if I never start on small ones? I am having somewhat irrational ideas of joining the FoodCorps, or convincing the city to lend me a plot of land to start an organic farm for the provo schools. The local-food movement is inspiring me right now; we talked about it last class (I'm a nutrition major, remember?) and I've been reading about it since. Here is a list of things I would like to try before summer is past:

-Volunteer on a local farm

-Become a CASA volunteer

-Read theses books

+Anna Karenina

+Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

+East of Eden (again)

-Get in a research group at BYU

-Be a Group Leader for BYU New Student Orientation

Who knows, maybe K and I will sneak a few chaperoned road trips in there, as well. What would summer be without a little escapism?

Any other suggestions for this summer?