I’ve been doing these student recitals once a year for three years, since I started taking piano lessons. This year. I didn’t nail it but I didn’t botch it either. It was somewhere in-between. At the refreshment table after the recital, one of the piano teachers in attendance said to me with some surprise, “Your teacher is younger than you?” “Every person here is younger than me,” I pointed out. Read more →
Author Archive: Paul Epps
ife is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink. — Shunryu Suzuki
For My Daughter
When I die choose a star and name it after me that you may know I have not abandoned or forgotten you. You were such a star to me, following you through birth and childhood, my hand in your hand. When I die choose a star and name it after me so that I may shine down on you, until you join me in darkness and silence together. — David Ignatow, “For My Daughter” Read more →
One Thing I Can’t Tolerate is Intolerance: BYU Edition
What values are we talking about? Tolerance for sexual preferences? What about tolerance for religious beliefs? You want tolerance for what makes you different but you’re not willing to extend tolerance to what makes others different? That’s not tolerance. There’s a word for what that is, and it’s not tolerance. What about inclusiveness? Is inclusiveness a good value? Should the Big 12 exclude BYU to promote inclusiveness? That’s not inclusiveness. Read more →
Bad Religion
If it brings me to my knees It’s a bad religion. — Frank Ocean Read more →
When Was That? I Missed It.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. — Romans 8:28 Read more →
More People I’m Sick Unto Death Of
Is anyone else sick of paying for an ever-expanding army of bureaucrats to meddle in their lives? Or is it just me? Read more →
A Net For My Steps
hey have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah. Read more →
How Do I Know If I’m Gay?
Here’s what I learned on the internet today: Gay refers to any male-identified person who is physically or emotionally attracted to other male-identified people. Lesbian refers to any female-identified person who is physically or emotionally attracted to other female-identified people. So if I’m a male-identified person and I’m physically attracted to a biological female, who looks and dresses in every respect like a female, but identifies as male, am I gay? Read more →
Good to Great
Browsing a bookstore with my son . . . he checks in to say that he was skimming through Good to Great. “Have you read it?” he asks. “No, and I’ll tell you why . . .” “Because you’re satisfied with just being good?” he interrupts. Read more →
The Man in the Arena
t is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. — Theodore Roosevelt, from the speech “Citizenship In A Republic,”… Read more →
Jill Stein on Leaked DNC Emails
The leaked DNC emails are the smoking gun that the Democratic establishment was rigging the game against Bernie the whole time. Instead of running the process impartially and letting the voters decide, top Democratic officials were doing all they could to ensure a Clinton victory, including collusion with journalists to present a pro-Clinton, anti-Sanders narrative. You want to affirm a corrupt party that just dragged you across the coals? You expect your supporters, who have a vision and who voted for integrity, to follow you into this shithole? Is there no respect here for his campaign and for himself? Are they just going to pretend it didn’t happen? I think it would be very hard for a self-respecting Sanders supporter, in light of these revelations, to take the beating and humiliate themselves and disrespect themselves, to go into the campaign and support the predator who destroyed them. How is Hillary… Read more →
Lost in Translation
Via Philip Greenspun: Tel Aviv cab driver: “I told my kids that the only place ‘Success’ comes before ‘Hard Work’ is in the dictionary.” (works better in Hebrew, presumably) Read more →
Your Attitude to Women is a Disgrace
Flag Burner Lights Himself On Fire
It is unfortunate that Trump’s rhetoric prevents the GOP from recruiting these fine Americans . . . Protestor lit flag on fire, then lit himself on fire, catching others on fire. Flames extinguished by firefighters. No serious injuries. — Cleveland Police (@CLEpolice) July 20, 2016 Read more →
Aside
He who is outside his door has the hardest part of his journey behind him. — Dutch proverb
Who Does Amazon Fresh?
Our office uses Amazon Fresh to get food delivered, so when a colleague posts “Who does Amazon Fresh again?” on the messaging system, what he means is “Remind me who is responsible for placing the Amazon Fresh orders.” Here is the actual answer: “I think it’s a company started by Amazon the online retailer.” Read more →
What People Want to Pronounce
The Tigers Have Spoken
[youtube https://youtu.be/UcgUJ5FzKoY] They shot the tiger on his chain In a field behind the cages He walked in circles ’til he was crazy And he lived that way forever And he lived that way beside them, Separate from the other tigers He did not know another tiger They shot the tiger on his chain In a field behind the cages He walked in circles ’til he was crazy And he lived that way forever And he lived that way forever Just as long as he could remember If he’d wanted to remember It was the last time he had felt alive When he saw that brown-haired lady She fed him with a bottle as a baby And he recalled her face and smile They shot that tiger on his chain Read more →
In Politics, An Honest Man Does Not Get Rich
I have been unable to save much money in my life. I have been in politics, and in politics an honest man does not get rich. — Sam Rayburn That’s not true, there are LOTS of rich politicians. Oh wait . . . [Sam Rayburn was one of the most powerful American politicians of the 20th century. He served as the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives for 17 years, the longest tenure in U.S. history. His savings at his death totaled $ 15,000.] Read more →