So the thing to do when working on a motorcycle, as in any other task, is to cultivate the peace of mind which does not separate one’s self from one’s surroundings. When that is done successfully then everything else follows naturally. Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the center of it all.
The past cannot remember the past. The future can’t generate the future. The cutting edge of this instant right here and now is always nothing less than the totality of everything there is.
Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. He was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”
Hey fellas — mime died out with Red Skelton. It doesn’t become entertaining again because you paint your head blue.
I say to my kid, “You know what I would do if I owned the Blue Man Group concept is have multiple shows all over the world so I can make more money.”
“You can’t do that,” he says.
(It turns out they actually do do this, BTW.)
“Why not? It’s not like going to see the Beatles, where people actually care who’s in the group. It’s more like going to see Lion King. Why would there be only one Lion King show?”
“If you’re making more money, then I’d want you to pay me more money.”
“Well, that’s the beauty of my idea, Clem Kadiddlehopper, because as I said, nobody cares about you. You want more money, you can take a hike. I’ll get another guy in here and paint his head blue and nobody will know the difference.”
We who are
your closest friends
feel the time
has come to tell you
that every Thursday
we have been meeting,
as a group,
to devise ways
to keep you
in perpetual uncertainty
frustration
discontent and
torture
by neither loving you
as much as you want
nor cutting you adrift.
Your analyst is
in on it,
plus your boyfriend
and your ex-husband;
and we have pledged
to disappoint you
as long as you need us.
In announcing our
association
we realize we have
placed in your hands
a possible antidote
against uncertainty
indeed against ourselves.
But since our Thursday nights
have brought us
to a community
of purpose
rare in itself
with you as
the natural center,
we feel hopeful you
will continue to make unreasonable
demands for affection
if not as a consequence
of your disastrous personality
then for the good of the collective.
If you go to your grave without painting your masterpiece, it will not get painted. No one else can paint it.
Only you.
In that strange separation of what man is from what man does we may have some clue as to what the hell has gone wrong in this twentieth century.
Is the bad-software problem really caused by bad requirements definition, which we could fix by doing a better job up front, if only we were more diligent and more professional in our work?
We have made this our primary excuse for bad software for decades. If this was really the problem, and if processes focusing on early lockdown of requirements provided the needed solution, wouldn’t we have solved this by now?
A process that requires us to lock down decisions early will maximize our risk, not manage it.
What I would like to do is use the time that is coming now to talk about some things that have come to mind. We’re in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it’s all gone.
Offer what you have, disclosing what you feel and think, connecting only with those who do likewise.
The truth knocks on the door and you say, “Go away, I’m looking for the truth,” and so it goes away.
It’s a good thing women aren’t married off young by their fathers anymore, or else we’d have a real homeless cat problem on our hands.
The Situation Leaving ‘Jersey Shore’ In One Year?
Leaving a successful TV show to become a movie star sounds like a can’t-miss idea, as I was just saying this morning to my cleaning woman, Shelley Long.
People who pronounce “both” as “boaf.”
Who came up with the stupid idea to once a year ask a GROUNDHOG his opinion about the WEATHER?! You should ask a PUG his opinion about the weather.
I HAVE NO OPINION ABOUT WEATHER! PUGS ARE DOMINANT IN ALL WEATHER CONDITIONS!
— Lightning 
The woman at the next table says to the waiter, “I’ll have the number 6 combo with the chile . . .”
She’s struggling with the next word, so the waiter says, “Relleno.”
“Right,” she says.
The waiter asks if she wants the regular chile or the spicy chile.
“Spicy,” she says.
I love Mexican food but chile rellenos are a little bit different. I’m not crazy about them. So I can see where he’s coming from when the husband asks her, “Are you sure you know what you’re ordering?”
“Number 6,” she says.
“I mean, do you know what a chile relleno is?”
“Yes.”
When the food comes, she asks the waiter, “What am I eating again?”
I’ve had the same password at work for three years. This morning, a new policy forced me to change it.
What’s the over/under on how many days before I stop typing the old one by mistake?
