Advertising is the price companies pay for being unoriginal.

~Yves Béhar

A man is whatever room he is in right now.

~Japanese Proverb

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.’ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

~Marianne Williamson

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
~Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948.

                                                       source: Liz Danzico’s Flickr set

Liz Danzico’s dog died on November 15, 2012. Her reflections lead to this moving post on her website. A fitting tribute to a friend. A proper salute to a partner.

On Dog Hair

There it was — as persistent as it had always been. A stubborn, short, quiet hair on the arm of my jacket this afternoon. My hand went up to brush it away, and then it stopped. Routine interrupted.

There it was. Although several weeks before, my beloved red dog had peacefully passed away. My closest companion of 12 years had once shed — generously and unadulteratedly — across the things of my life. And while she was gone, here: her trademark doghair still stood.

How lucky I had been for the red hair. How lucky I had been for the loyalty two companion animals provide: commingled, intertwined, co-habitated. Shedding upon one another our lives such that when we went back into the world, we had these small red badges of courage.

In our dozen years together, this animal taught me more about being a person than any person I’ve known. Importantly:

1. Learn at least one impressive trick.
2. Shake when wet.
3. Wag.
4. When off the leash, it is best to run to a loved one.
5. Accept treats from strangers energetically yet cautiously.
6. Roll in grass whenever possible.
7. Wonderful things can sometimes be found in the trash.
8. Barking is a last resort.
9. Know when the right time is to let go of what you love.
10. True life partners do exist.

Lucy passed away November 15, 2012. The loss devastated me so deeply and personally that I couldn’t speak of it at all. Now, I think back on what I have been known to say, “When in doubt, trust the one covered in dog hair.” Trust them, and know they’re carrying badges of much more.

How lucky we are if we have known dog hair.

I’m noticing an increase in the number of weddings (and plans for weddings) within my circle of friends. And then yesterday I read this remarkable letter on brainpickings.org (great website!). In it former US President Ronald Reagan offers some candid marital advice to his son Michael, three days before the latter’s marriage in 1971. How apt.

Dear Mike:

Enclosed is the item I mentioned (with which goes a torn up IOU). I could stop here but I won’t.

You’ve heard all the jokes that have been rousted around by all the “unhappy marrieds” and cynics. Now, in case no one has suggested it, there is another viewpoint. You have entered into the most meaningful relationship there is in all human life. It can be whatever you decide to make it.

Some men feel their masculinity can only be proven if they play out in their own life all the locker-room stories, smugly confident that what a wife doesn’t know won’t hurt her. The truth is, somehow, way down inside, without her ever finding lipstick on the collar or catching a man in the flimsy excuse of where he was till three A.M., a wife does know, and with that knowing, some of the magic of this relationship disappears. There are more men griping about marriage who kicked the whole thing away themselves than there can ever be wives deserving of blame. There is an old law of physics that you can only get out of a thing as much as you put in it. The man who puts into the marriage only half of what he owns will get that out. Sure, there will be moments when you will see someone or think back to an earlier time and you will be challenged to see if you can still make the grade, but let me tell you how really great is the challenge of proving your masculinity and charm with one woman for the rest of your life. Any man can find a twerp here and there who will go along with cheating, and it doesn’t take all that much manhood. It does take quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick and washed his dirty underwear. Do that and keep her still feeling a warm glow and you will know some very beautiful music. If you truly love a girl, you shouldn’t ever want her to feel, when she sees you greet a secretary or a girl you both know, that humiliation of wondering if she was someone who caused you to be late coming home, nor should you want any other woman to be able to meet your wife and know she was smiling behind her eyes as she looked at her, the woman you love, remembering this was the woman you rejected even momentarily for her favors.

Mike, you know better than many what an unhappy home is and what it can do to others. Now you have a chance to make it come out the way it should. There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his footsteps.

Love,

Dad

P.S. You’ll never get in trouble if you say “I love you” at least once a day.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

~Martin Luther King, Jr. 

The object of art is not to make salable pictures. It is to save yourself.

…

The thing of course, is to make yourself alive. Most people remain all of their lives in a stupor. The point of being an artist is that you may live.

…

You won’t arrive. It is an endless search.

~Sherwood Anderson, 1927

The more creative you are the more trouble you’re in. You have to be courageous!

~George Lois

Creativity is the residue of time wasted.

~Albert Einstein