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Showing posts with the label Gifts

Able

 Der Eybershter zol gebe as di veler zoln kenen un di kener zon viln. May the Eternal One grant that those who to want to will be able, and those who are able will want to.  - Hans Nusbaum

With Thanks and Appreciation

“Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.” ―  Albert Einstein,  The World As I See It

Eliahu HaNavi

A man wants to go to find Elijah the prophet. So he prepares himself, gather his food, set off, because he has heard that Elijah will be at one particular Seder in the small village, in the middle of nowhere.  And finally after a long journey, he approaches a house, old and ramshackle. He looks in through a cracked window as an extended family gathered to celebrate the Seder. They are wearing their finest for Yontif and yet he can see that they are poor because the clothes are patched, the walls are bare and even for this, the greatest meal of the year, there is barely any food on the table. And he wonders, can Elijah really be here? Sadly, he realizes he must have come to the wrong house. Elijah cannot possibly be here at this table. He starts to walk away. As he walks away he forgets about Elijah in the simply heartened by the warmth, the children smiling and singing and the lights of the candles. And then he thinks about the fact that he has so much food and they h...

Luck

“One could have the brain of Einstein, the shrewdness of Barney Baruch, and the wisdom of Thoreau, but without Lady Luck in your corner you might just as well stay you to room and turn on the gas.”  - Groucho Marx Groucho was right about needing luck but wrong about giving up when we fail.

Our Wake

There was a famous French criminologist, Emile Locard.   In 1940 he came up with Locard’s Exchange Principle.   “It says something to the effect that any person passing through a room will unknowingly deposit something there and take something away.”   - Robert Fulghum   There is no such thing as leaving no wake.  Everything we think, do, say or touch makes an impact on the universe.

Personal Worth

"Acting is one of the most minor gifts and not a very high-class way to earn a living.  After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four."   - Katherine Hepburn Is this humility or realism?   If it is humility, should we strive to be as humble? If it is realism, what can we learn?