"Thousands of candles can be lighted by a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared." That is a quote by Buddha. It is amazing how many beautiful things you can find if you look for them! I have always felt that I am well read. I have read hundreds of books and articles a year since before I was a teen. Even so, since starting to look up quotes for my blog posts, I have still gotten a new appreciation for a quote that I have always believed: " A wise man knows how little he truly knows." Okay, so I am paraphrasing Socratic ignorance there, but I think you see what I am getting at. The more I read, the more I see how little reading I have actually done.
Like happiness, wisdom doesn't decrease with the sharing. I love to read quotes because they force me to think about what the author is actually trying to say. One of the negatives about reading quotes, though, is that it is so easy to take a single sentence out of context, when you don't see what else the author was saying in the moment. It is easy to latch on to one sentence, perfectly said in a paragraph full of drivel and false ideas. With all of the writing I do, I would love to have something I have written quoted on a quote page. Better yet, I would like to have something quoted that actually means exactly what I was trying to say. I think Socrates must sometimes roll over in his grave with the way people misinterpret what he was trying to get across. Socrates had a tendency to be long winded. It seems he believed that there was no sense saying in a sentence something that could be better said in a half-hour sermon. Still, people (including myself) can find a single sentence that he uttered that can convey an idea that we like. That's why he is quoted constantly. Meanwhile, I think Buddha likely rests in his grave rather easily. The quotes attributed to Buddha are usually short and simplistic. To the point and beautiful. Like the quote above. Personally, I think the quotes attributed to Buddha must have come from a number of different authors over centuries. Otherwise, talking to Buddha must have been like talking to a box of riddles, or someone who was perpetually stoned. I wonder if anyone ever got a straight answer out of Buddha that was comprehensible without stopping to think about it. Think about it: "Hey Buddha, what would you like to eat?" "On life's journey faith is nourishment." "Okay then, nothing for Buddha, he's going to sit over their and chew on his words for a while." Truth be told, Buddha was a vegetarian. He believed that "The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great compassion." I don't know. I believe I am as compassionate as the next person, and yet I still love a good steak. God obviously didn't give us sharp teeth to eat bananas...and tigers were not put on this earth to eat popcorn. But I digress, Happiness and wisdom are two things that can be shared without diminishing our own use of them. Help people to learn what they do not know. You will find that you too, will learn in the teaching. Share a smile, oftentimes you will get one in return. Tell a joke, and everyone will laugh with you, yet cry and you'll typically cry alone. In the end, I guess the best advice is to share what you would like shared with you, and you will see the sentiment grow. Meanwhile try to lessen other people's pain (as you would like done for you when you are hurting), and you will help to spread goodwill in your immediate vicinity. Finally, remember that while you can light a candle with a candle, you can also light the drapes on fire! Spreading happiness is always a good thing, but spreading wisdom to an evil fool is likely not a good idea.
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Last night was quite possibly one of the most amazing nights I have ever had. For those of you who don't know, I'm turning 14 in 5 days (October 12th). As an early birthday present, my dad took me to an awesome concert. The bands playing were FFDP (Five Finger Death Punch) and Papa Roach, and the opening bands for them were In This Moment and From Ashes To New. I'd like to give a quick run-down of the bands in my opinion. The first band that played was From Ashes To New. I had heard of the group before, but had never bothered to listen to any of their music. I wasn't expecting too much from them since they're a smaller group... needless to say, my mind was changed by the end of their 35-minute performance. As the first show of the night, it was their job to get the crowd going- and they did a great job of it. A highlight of their performance was when their guitarist launched himself into the crowd and then crowd surfed while playing the guitar flawlessly. As the first performers, it was FATN's job to get the crowd revved up for the rest of the show- which they did a great job in doing. However, In This Moment came out and ruined the momentum that FATN had given by stopping every song for a rest and a costume change. They are one of my favorite bands; but they put on a lousy performance that killed the show. So much better to just buy their CD and have the songs to listen to anytime. Thankfully, Papa Roach was next and they DOMINATED the entire show. They had amazing stage presence and brought the show back to life after In This Moment's failure. Twice the lead singer went out into the audience, once being just 5 rows away from Dad and I. They also performed an encore song, "Scars", in the middle of the floor right on the edge of the giant mosh pit taking place. All in all, they put on an amazing show and were definitely the best band of the night. They played for about an hour and 45 minutes and got the crowd psyched up for FFDP, the last performance of the night. After Papa Roach- FFDP kind of disappointed everyone. Did they rock? Yes. Did they put on a good show? Yes. They were awesome and I loved their show. However, after Papa Roach, there was no way they could compete. They closed off the show nicely and had everyone out of their seats cheering, clapping and singing along the whole time. Definitely a great band. Before I go- here were my favorite songs. My Fight - From Ashes To New Blood - In This Moment Big Bad Wolf - In This Moment Last Resort - Papa Roach Gravity - Papa Roach ft. Maria Brink Where Did The Angels Go - Papa Roach Falling Apart - Papa Roach Jekyll and Hyde - FFDP Wrong Side of Heaven - FFDP The Bleeding - FFDP Got Your Six - FFDP ~Maddie "Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." This is a quote by John Wooden, an amazing college basketball coach. His teams won the NCAA championship 10 times in a 12-year period, including seven years in a row! To give some perspective, no one else has been able to win it more that two years in a row...in the entire history of the tournament. Although he was a great coach, his players loved him for the life lessons he gave, since a lot of what he taught could be used both on and off the court. The above quote is a great example of his coaching style.
Too many of us let what we can't do stop us from doing what we can. Oftentimes what we mean by can't is "don't want to" or "overwhelmed". While nothing can make you want to do something, sometimes just starting with the right attitude is enough to pull you through. Personally, I find that nothing logical is impossible. It could be improbable or hard, but not impossible. A good example of this is saving money. So many people go through life with little to no savings. And yet these are the same people you see out at Starbucks twice a day or riding about in new cars or ATVs. Their thinking never goes beyond the now. Yet by cutting out one Starbucks coffee per day, they would be able to save at least $1,100 a year! I am sure all of us could live with one less cup of coffee per day! And yet so few people do so. On the flip side, some people get overwhelmed thinking about the size of the task ahead of them that they fail to take even the littlest step towards accomplishing their goal. Remember, even the longest journey starts with a single step! When you have a large task in front of you, break it down into a number of smaller steps. Remember, if something is logical, than it is likely possible... and the best way to achieve the goal is to start with what you already know is possible. So what is it that you want to achieve? So many people just feel so trapped in their current circumstances that they never even stop to think what it is that they actually want. Knowing what you want goes a long way towards making the impossible possible. Find out what you actually want to do, before you call it impossible. Do you want to meet someone new? Then go somewhere where you can meet someone new! Or, better yet, approach and talk t someone that you see in the places you do go. How many of us pass people nearly every day, yet never even give that other person a nod of acknowledgement? I know I do! Oftentimes when I go out I go to the same places. After going to these places a few times, I'll see familiar faces, yet I won't know their names or anything else about them. Instead, I'll make up my own nicknames for them...Smiley, chubby, cutie, grumpy, etc. While I may not want to meet all of them (grumpy quickly comes to mind), what stops me from talking to the rest of them? Particularly since a part of me wants to become more sociable. Meeting these people is certainly possible. Yet in my mind I say impossible. Fear of being thought strange, or of offending someone, or scaring people...general shyness holds me back. Yet by doing the possible, I would defeat those thoughts that my situation was impossible. So, what holds you back from making the "impossible" possible? In what way can I help you to make something impossible for you Possible? Remember, don't ask me to do it for you! Then it would still be impossible for you. But how can I help to make you complete the task that you have ahead of you? If it is logical, then it is likely possible. Examine your dreams. See what parts of your impossibilities are possible...and start from there. And soon you will find that what is logical and you thought impossible, is both possible and probable. It's just how you approach it! Today I read Mouses Hide - And - Seek Words. It is about a mouse who likes to find words
inside other words . He finds the word "late"in"plate". And the word"rip"in trip"I think it is a fun game. Ashleigh
But I digress. We saw four bands tonight, in about five hours. We had great seats, just off to the side of the stage. From Ashes To New started the show and really got the crowd started. I had only heard one of their songs before, so I was pleasantly surprised that they could really rock. The highlight of the set was when the guitarist dove into the crowd and played the guitar as he crowd surfed through the fans. For those of you who don't know, crowd surfing is when a person is held up above the crowd and passed along hand to hand above the crowd. I thought it took a lot of guts for him to do that, and it really got the crowd going. They played for about 35 minutes and did a good job. Next, In This Moment came out to do their set. Although I knew a number of the songs the band played (they are one of Maddie's favorite bands), I didn't like their performance as much as the other bands'. After every song, the lead singer would stop to change costumes and the two minute lull between songs really took momentum away from the show. In fact, by the time the band was done with their forty-five minute set, the crowd seemed flat, and less excited than after the first band. I was a little disappointed given the momentum the first band had built going into their set and given that the group generally has hard-edged music that should resonate with the crowd. The band left with a whimper and it was time to wait for Papa Roach. Papa Roach came out next and floored the crowd! These guys really know how to rock and in my opinion, they put on the best set of the night. Twice the band came out into the crowd. At one point, the lead singer was only five rows away from us, and we were in the mezzanine! (I thought being in a mosh pit wouldn't be a great introduction to rock concerts for Maddie). All of the fans were on their feet for the whole set for Papa Roach compared to the more relaxed atmosphere for the first two bands. A mosh pit opened up in the middle of the floor and security was kept busy as scores of fans crowd surfed to the stage. Papa Roach played for about an hour and a half and did two encores, including the song "Scars" which the singer and the lead guitarists did while off the stage out on the floor near the edge of the mosh pit. My favorite songs were "Last Resort" and "Scars". I have to say that Papa Roach was definitely the highlight of the entire show for me and I would definitely recommend going to see them live if you like their music. They have a great stage presence! The final band of the night was Five Finger Death Punch. These guys came out and rocked hard, but did not beat Papa Roach for the sheer intensity or entertainment value of their set. Maddie felt that their drummer was the best one of the night, although I thought that the drummer for From Ashes To New beat him out. The mosh pit from Papa Roach continued during the Death Punch set, as did the crowd surfing. The band played a number of songs that we knew since both Maddie and I like heavy metal. My favorites were "Wrong Side Of Heaven" and "Remember Everything", while Maddie liked "Jekyll And Hyde" and "Remember Everything". One of the highlights of the show for Maddie was when the lead guitarist of Five Finger Death Punch pointed at her (he is the second guitarist back in this picture). At the time he was up on the little stage where the other guitarist is in this picture. We were close enough to the stage so he could see her and he did seem to have a habit of pointing at girls in the crowd. Anyway, it made her smile and amused me too. In the end, Five Finger Death Punch did a great job, but it just didn't match the performance put on by Papa Roach. With that said, Maddie and I had a great time. And I'd have to call that one of my better birthday presents in quite a while!
Okay. So this post is probably going to be really short because it's REALLY late but... tomorrow I'm going to a concert so I want to go to sleep so I'm well rested. In 6 days, I'm going to be turning 14 (which I'm really happy about) and one of my gifts was concert tickets to see Five Finger Death Punch, Papa Roach, In This Moment and From Ashes To New. I know all of these bands, and love them all- I can't wait!
I think I have the day off tomorrow, but I'm really not certain. I'd also like to take a moment and apologize for the length of this post. It's just really late, I'm really tired, and I have absolutely nothing to say but that "I'm happy" and I can't wait for tomorrow. I just want to go to sleep so it'll come faster! Well.. if I can't give you a long blog post, perhaps I can just share my happiness. If you go back through articles long enough, you'll find 33 moments of happiness. In fact; here is the direct link: http://www.thebookstak.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-importance-of-living-7.html I hope that this can spark some thought, and also brighten your day. Don't forget to smile. ~Maddie Okay, no quote today! What can I do? Who cares?! It's what I can't do that interests me. If you always set out to do what you can do, then there is no growth and you can't progress. Therefore, it is best to try to do what you can't do. Over and over again, until you can do it. Thus you increase what you can do and have a fuller life because of it.
I was just reading a blog post by James Altucher. It was a long post, and most of it just wasn't memorable to me. Yet there is one part near the end where it really hit home. He was writing about how his daughter had just lost a tennis match. He asked her " 'What did you learn?" She said, “What do you mean? I was disappointed.” He wrote: "If she always sticks to only what she can do (a safe, consistent serve instead of a harder one that will miss more) then she will never get better at what, right now, she can’t do." It’s the can’ts that add up to a win or a loss. The “cans” just keep you in the box of what is safe. That last line is brilliance in a simple form. The world doesn't progress with what "CAN" be done, but it takes astounding leaps when someone accomplishes what in the past couldn't be done. Think about it: In 1969 NASA put a man on the moon. One hundred years earlier, man was only going aloft in balloons. In 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright brought us the first heavier-than-air flight. In 1926, Robert Goddard invented the first liquid-fueled rocket and by the 1950's man was leaving the earth's atmosphere. Man progressed by doing what they previously could not. Nowadays, Elon Musk is trying to land a man on Mars! In the years since 1969, We have put space stations in orbit around the earth, and we have put rovers on Mars, as well as numerous other accomplishments in space exploration. All of these wonderful discoveries and achievements are being driven by men and women who are not afraid to try what they can't do. On a more personal level, we don't have to aim for the stars to do something that we have never done before. For me, the martial arts and my writing give me two outlets to do things I have never done before. In karate, I have been working on spinning hook kicks to the head for months. When I first started practicing them, I could barely do a spinning hook kick to the body let alone to head level. The more I practiced the kick I could barely do, the better I have gotten at it. Now I can hit the bag at head level regularly with my spinning back kick. I now work on the timing so that I can actually land it against a moving target. As for my writing, I am always trying to push the envelope. In general, I write for a living. I work for Value Line and I cover 49 stocks and an industry. At a minimum, that amounts to about 200 articles a year. Supplementary reports likely bring that number closer to 250 pages. On top of that, I also write 5 blog posts a week for Mountain Rants. That means an additional 260 posts a year. It is with Mountain Rants where I can really try to push the envelope. I use Mountain Rants to tell my daughters things that I want them to know. Little life lessons to help them learn to think or live their lives more happily. The beauty of the posts is that they are there for posterity. My daughters, and others, can look at them whenever they like. Hopefully, they will find one or two ideas that will make their lives easier in the coming years. When I am not trying to teach my daughters something, I try to explore my own thoughts so I can see where I am in my life. No one is perfect, myself included. The only way to move forward is to examine where I am and where I have been. Socrates once said: "An unexamined life is not worth living." For Socrates, I think he meant that he wanted people to make conscious, ethical choices. For me, it means to see where I am now and how I can better myself in the future. Moving forward isn't found in the can. It is found in the can't. What is it that I can't do now, that I may be able to do with a little practice or trial and error? Where can I then go once I am able to do that? These are the questions that I look to answer. The final question is: Is it worth doing? We all only have so much time on this earth. Why waste it doing something that just isn't worth the effort to do? The answer to that will be different for each person. While the time it would take me to learn how to play the guitar at 50 may not seem worth it to me, for someone else it may fulfill a life's dream. Meanwhile, others may find it incredibly stupid for a fifty-year-old guy to learn how to do a spinning hook kick to someone's head. To each their own. In the end, I am interested in the can't. While Elon Musk's urge to go to Mars may be a nobler effort than my spinning hook kick, the difference in our incomes make his can't a little closer for him to achieve than it would be for me. If I can get off this earth with having landed at least one spinning hook kick to the head and having taught my daughters all that I have wanted to teach them, then I'll have reached today's horizons. Will these goals be enough for me tomorrow? Nope. As long as I am alive my goals will continue to change.. or more likely to expand to include other can'ts. Right now, as I write this, I know I have other goals as well. Other can'ts that I want to become cans. This blog post would go on for pages if I let it. For now, these two will do for good examples. What can'ts do you want to turn to cans? "Most people don't care if you're telling them the truth or if you're telling them a lie, as long as they're entertained by it." That is a quote by Tom Waits, and I think it is one of the most shallow things I have ever heard.Under most circumstances, I believe that most people really do care if you are telling them the truth or not. Lies are a waste of everybody's time, and I believe no one likes to have their time wasted by someone else. So much of what we hear nowadays are lies. Lies or misinformation. Some people will tell you something believing it is the truth, and yet it was someone else's lie that they are just repeating. Lenin and Hitler both believed that "a lie told often enough becomes the truth. Well, Lenin said that actually. Hitler's version was a little more varied. His said "If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed." He also said: "Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it." Sadly, it seems that everyone now believes these mantras. We are lied to by our politicians, we are lied to through advertising, we are lied to through phony studies, and we are lied to through our history books. In fact, it's almost to the point that if you didn't witness an event in person, then you really don't know what happened. The pictures we see, the news casts we watch, all are manipulated to make us believe a story. The stories themselves are often told from one point of view. It's rare that enough information is given to allow us to make up our own minds about an issue. Altering news or pictures isn't new either. It has been going on for decades. There are pictures from the civil war that have been altered to show scenes that never happened and there are pictures from recent political campaigns that have been altered to tell a story. Here is a recent example. This October 2012 National Review magazine cover was altered. "This cover features Barack Obama delivering a speech at the DNC. The cheering crowd waves blue signs saying “ABORTION” when in the original photo the signs read “FORWARD.” BRONX DOCUMENTARY CENTER" That quote is from a Wired magazine article from July 2015. Would the cover have been as powerful a tool for Obama if the signs were left saying Forward. I think you know the answer to that. Abortion is a controversial issue and many democrats support it. So what is wrong with all this lying? Well, the way our memories work, we will remember these images and recall them later and believe them as truth. It must be true, I saw it on the cover of the national review! How many lies have we all seen and did not recognize as being untrue? How many things have we read, that we now believe are true, that are not true? It's bad enough when it is the media doing this to us, but how about when we do it to each other? How many times have one of your friends or loved ones lied to you and you were unaware. Lying seems to be part of the culture now. I have had people look me straight in the eye and lie to me, not knowing that I had observed what had happened. It is sickening, Can we no longer trust our friends and families? I guess it all comes down to who can you trust? I'd like to think that I can trust my family. How about you? Today I read a new book. The name of the book was Ted's Shed. The story is about Ted,
who liked the color red . He moved his bed to his shed. He then put wheels on his shed and made it into a caravan. He took his friend Fred and some others for a ride. I liked this book a lot! Ashleigh I wanted to be a bit eccentric with my topic today, so I've decided to look up some statistics of different deaths and how likely they are to happen; and also how many of these types of deaths occur every year. I don't want common deaths in there... so while there will be a few, most of these will be obscure and odd.
89,000 people die in their sleep every night for no reason at all- that being said; I wish you good night. And I hope you are the lucky ones who wake up. ~Maddie I love this quote because of how direct and accurate it is. Too often, we let our world get meshed in with the worlds that others try to form for us, and it's not okay. I'd like to put some parents on blast right now- because I know (not in my case) but in the case of my friends that they too often let themselves slide into a mold that their parents set for them. They take NO control over their lives and literally let their parents run everything. Now, I understand that kids need guidance... but that doesn't mean you get to sculpt their life into whatever you want. Emphasis on THEIR life.
A good few examples:
I think that's enough... shape your own world, and your own life... never let anyone else do it for you. ~Maddie Today, I read a new book: The Berenstein Bears: Lemonade Stand. I liked the book very
much. The book is about the bear cubs starting a lemonade stand. The mailman, Bob was their first customer. He paid a quarter. Boys mowing their lawn came next and then the other neighbors. Soon , a party started around the stand. It ended when it got dark and they had fireworks. Ashleigh "Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away." That is a quote by Marcus Aurelius. If half the quotes attributed to him are truly his, then this man was a genius and about a thousand years ahead of his time! What a simple, yet elegant and accurate way to describe time. Brilliant!
Time is like a river, and, to paraphrase Chaucer, "it waits for no one". Over the past few years, I have felt like I have been caught in one of time's eddies. I've grown older, yet my life hasn't moved forward. I've whirled around in big lazy circles caught between memories and sadness. It's only recently that I have broken free from the whorl and begin to inch my way forward again. Life goes on for the living...if we allow it to. It is so easy to get caught in an eddy and stay there. Memories of what was and thoughts of might what have been fight for attention versus the reality of now. Some how, memories of the bad are suppressed, and thus the past becomes more of a fantasy world. Meanwhile, reality is here right now. Waiting to be made into memories. Life should be lived in the currents of time not the eddies. Head for the rapids and enjoy the ride. |
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