Diamonds In The Rough

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

The Most Human Thing
(Community)
Clarence Darrow

The most human thing we can do is comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

***

Man is Tough
(Commitment)
William Faulkner

Man is tough. Nothing - war, grief, hopelessness, despair - can last as long as man himself can last; man himself will prevail over all his anguishes, provided he will make the effort to stand erect on his own feet by believing in hope and in his own toughness and endurance.

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

All I Ever Really Needed to Know
I Learned in Kindergarten
(Values)
Robert Fulghum

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair, Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup. The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic up - they all die. So do we.

And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and sane living.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation to always put things back where we found them and cleaned up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

If -
(Leadership)
Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch and toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them, "Hold on."

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virture,
Or walk with kings - nor lose common tough,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more, you'll be a Man, my son.

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

Never
(Humor)
Shel Silverstein

I've never roped a Brahma bull,
I've never fought a duel,
I've never crossed the desert
On a lop-eared, swayback mule,
I've never climbed and idol's nose
To steal a cursed jewel.
I've never gone down with my ship
Into the bubblin' brine,
I've never saved a lion's life
And then had him save mine,
Or screamed Ahoooo while swingin' through
The jungle on a vine.
I've never dealt draw poker
In a rowdy lumber camp,
Or got up at the count of nine
To beat the world's champ,
I've never had my picture on
A six-cent postage stamp.
I've never scored a touchdown
On a ninety-nine yard run,
I've never winged six Daltons
With my dying brother's gun...
Or kissed Miz Jane, and rode my hoss
Into the setting sun.
Sometimes I get so depressed
'Bout whatt I haven't done.

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

I Went to the Woods
(Values)
Henry David Thoreau

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and search out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.

 

[goingonhope]

Come Christmas...I'll be thinking of you all, and Wishing You a Very Merry Christmas!

:crazy-eye That's me!

....Will miss adding to Diamonds in the Rough thread daily as I am most definately in need of break from forum. Already know, I'll need to struggle with this one. Bless you all'...and please take good care of yourselves and each other over the holiday.

 

[wildfirewildone]

My Favorite!!!!

:clap: Thoreau is my favorite author/philosopher.....The town I used to live in has a library with 2 HUGE volumes containing his journals....good reading!!! I think I only made it through a 16th of it....the pages are huge and the print is small....I've read this particular passage and even copied it down years back... I discovered that the books he wrote often came fairly straight from his journals.....wildfirewildone....KEEPING THE PEACE....AND LIVING IT

 

[anthony]

You too hope, you too.

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

...hey, thank you much anthony.

Thought I'd quickly add this and then get back to work.

Serious Daring
(Taking Risks)
Eudora Welty

All serious daring starts from within

***

Letting Go
(Taking Risks)
Anonymous

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.

***

To Venture
(Taking Risks)
Soren Kierkegaard

To venture causes anxiety, but not to venture is to lose one's self. And to venture in the highest sense is precisely to become conscious of one's self.

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

It is the Weak Who Are Cruel
(Growth)
Leo Rosten

It is the weak who are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.

***

Place to Improve the World
(Growth)
Robert M. Pirsig

The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

Thank You for the Nourishment
(Journey)
Paul Radcliffe

Most of us are so caught up in the patterns and routines of our lives that we seldom take the time to become quiet, and experience the depths within us. We are used to focusing on others, and rarely do we give ourselves the opportunity to explore the inner beauty and mystery of our own lives. When we support and nourish our own self with others, both our inner lives and our expression in the world become harmonious.

Expressing oneself is both a path to inner stillness as well as an outflow of that deeper connection with the self. In our lives, we tend to house and then to feed old tapes, illusions, and fears that serve to hide our inner beauty and block its spontaneous expression. For me, this experience (of expeditioning with close friends in small boats around Cape Breton, N.S.), and those before in Wyoming and Colorado have helped me get free from past and future illusion so that I may more clearly see who I really am. Thank you for the nourishment.

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

Helping Others
(Relationships)
Elie Wiesel

Does not helping another person mean saving him from despair?