Come on 2011!
"Cheers to a new year and
  another chance for us
       to get it right." 
         -Oprah Winfry Oprah Winfrey

        Friendship is like a BOOK.
        It takes few seconds to burn,
        but it takes years to write

"A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day."
                                                                          – Albert Schweitzer

About Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer, the German medical missionary, won the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work at a hospital in French Equatorial Africa, where he treated and operated on thousands of people, including hundreds of people afflicted with leprosy. He was also an organist, famous for his interpretation of J.S. Bach's music. Late in life, he worked with Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell against nuclear proliferation. He was born in 1875 in Kaysersberg and died in 1965.

          ONE DAY AT A TIME?

"I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the year's."
                                                                       – Henry Moore

About Henry Moore

British sculptor Henry Moore is known for his voluptuous abstract figures. He was born in 1898 to a poor mining family. After Moore served in World War I, he became the first student of sculpture at Leeds School of Art; a sculpture studio was set up specifically for him. As he studied primitive arts, his own work became more abstract. He established The Henry Moore Foundation in 1977 to promote public appreciation of art. He died in 1986. His work can be seen in public spaces all over the world.

 

"The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up."                 

"My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened."

"You already possess everything necessary to become great."

Native American Proverb

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving."
                                                 – St. Francis de Sales

About St. Francis de Sales

St. Francis de Sales (1567–1622), known as the Gentle Saint, was bishop of Geneva. His motto was, "He who preaches with love preaches effectively," and his religious texts, including Introduction to the Devout Life, have resonated with many non-Catholics. Pope Pius IX proclaimed him a patron saint of writers. Some consider him a patron saint of the deaf; he invented a form of sign language to teach a young deaf man how to communicate.

"Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for truth."
                                                                     – Benjamin Disraeli

About Benjamin Disraeli

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) was a novelist, dandy, and ultimately a politician — he served twice as prime minister of England, the first (and thus far only) Jewish man to hold that office. He introduced a number of domestic reforms, including the Factory Act, the Public Heath Act, and the Education Act, but is best remembered for his imperialist foreign policies. During his second ministry Britain annexed the Fiji Islands and the Transvaal, purchased a controlling share of the Suez Canal, and declared Queen Victoria the empress of India.

How does this fit with the common attitude about feelings that we encounter in life?

"The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now."

                                                     Ancient Chinese Wisdom

"Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it.…Success is shy — it won't come out while you're watching."
                                                                  – Tennessee Williams

About Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams was the pen name of Thomas Lanier Williams, the multiple-award-winning Southern Gothic playwright best known for his plays Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie. He was born in 1911 in Mississippi, where he had a difficult childhood with an abusive father, a smothering mother, and a schizophrenic sister. His emotionally honest plays often feature sensitive souls who don't fit into a confining culture. He spent most of his adult life in New York City. He died in 1983.

"Luck is the by-product of busting your fanny."
                                                   – Don Sutton

About Don Sutton

American Major League baseball player Don Sutton, never a flashy player, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame after an amazingly consistent winning career as a pitcher. He was born in Alabama in 1945, and broke into the big leagues at age 21. By the time he retired in 1988, he had won 324 games, recorded more than 3,500 strikeouts, racked up a record 21 consecutive 100-plus strikeout seasons, and never missed his turn in the pitching rotation. He is now a TV announcer for the Washington Nationals.

"Can anything be sadder than work unfinished? Yes, work never begun."

"Were the diver to think only on the
jaws of the shark, he would never
lay hands on the precious pearl."

"Believe that you can do it, under any circumstances. Because if you believe you can, then you really will. That belief just keeps you searching for the answers, then pretty soon you get it."
                                                                        – Wally "Famous" Amos

"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."
- Sir Edmund Hillary

"Stay committed to your decisions,
but stay flexible in your approach.
It's the end you're after."
- Anthony Robbins

"A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself."
                                                                      – Alexandre Dumas

About Alexandre Dumas

Popular French author Alexandre Dumas was famed for his adventure stories, including The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. He was born in 1802 near Paris. His mulatto father was a general in the French Army who died young, leaving his family destitute. Dumas began as a playwright, but newspapers were eager for serialized fiction, so he adapted a play into his first novel. He died in 1870; in 2002 his body was moved to the Pantheon to recognize his role in French literature.

Inspiration is a guest that does not
willingly visit the lazy.
                                                            – Pyotr Tchaikovsky

About Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the Russian classical composer best known for the Nutcracker and Swan Lake ballets, was renowned for his passionate melodies and for bringing Western music into the Russian tradition. He was born in Kamsko-Votkinsk in 1840. He taught music until a widow offered her financial patronage, then retired to the country to compose full time. He never met his benefactor. He died in 1893, just after the first performance of his Sixth Symphony, the "Pathétique."

Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing until it gets there.
                                                                – Josh Billings

About Josh Billings

Josh Billings was the pen name of folksy American humorist Henry Wheeler Shaw. He was born in Massachusetts in 1818. After he was thrown out of college for stealing the clapper from the school bell, he roamed far and wide for 26 years before settling down in Poughkeepsie, New York, as an auctioneer. His essays were initially snubbed; he became successful only after he adopted a more eccentric phonetic spelling. He was best known for his annual Old Farmer's Allminax. He died in 1885.

"I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well."
                                                                                  – Diane Ackerman

About Diane Ackerman

American poet and nonfiction author Diane Ackerman has written more than 20 books and is best known for the eloquently written best seller The Natural History of the Senses. She was born in Illinois in 1948. While working toward her Ph.D. at Cornell, she studied both arts and sciences, feeling "the universe wasn't knowable from only one perspective." She has a molecule named after her: the dianeacerkone. She lives in upstate New York with her novelist husband.

"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg."
                                                                                               – C. S. Lewis

About C. S. Lewis

Anglo-Irish author C. S. Lewis, called Jack by his friends, is best known for his children's fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia. He was born in 1898 in Belfast but settled in England after serving in World War I. He belonged to a writing group with J. R. R. Tolkien, whom he credited for his religious awakening. Lewis went on to write many Christian-themed books. His marriage to Joy Gresham, who died of bone cancer, was memorialized in the movie Shadowlands. He died in 1963.

"We learn to walk by stumbling."

"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor."
                                       -- Truman Capote

"The foolish person seeks happiness in the distance; the wise person grows it under his feet."
- James Oppenheim

Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it and I'm afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: hard work — and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't."            
                                                                            – Lucille Ball

About Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball, the beloved redheaded comedian, was born in 1911 in New York. She enrolled in drama school — where she was told she had no acting talent, so she became a model. That career led to her discovery by Hollywood. Ball and her bandleader husband, Desi Arnaz, pitched a sitcom to CBS, which refused it, but they went on the road with it as a vaudeville act. The act — about a ditzy housewife and her bandleader husband — was a success, as was the ensuing TV show, I Love Lucy. The show made TV history when Lucy's sitcom character was pregnant on the air. She died in 1989.

With Respect & Gratitude,
                Tom
       http://aronbestsellers.com

"Always tell the truth. You may make a hole in one when you're alone on the golf course someday."

- FranklJonesn P. i

"Mount Everest, you beat me the first time, but I'll beat you the next time because you've grown all you are going to grow...but I'm still growing!" 
                                                                            Sir Edmund Hillary
                                                                         

"The only place where your dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking."
- Robert H. Schuller

"Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
                                                                              – Steve Jobs

(This would have helped me in my high school years. Tom Aron)

Fiction is the truth inside the lie.

                                         -- Stephen King

"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea,
never regains its original dimensions."
                                                    – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Everyone wants to see justice done
              to someone else.

"What the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve."
                                                          Napoleon Hill

"I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be."
                                                                                              – Groucho Marx

"If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to meet it."
                                                          - Jonathon Winters

Everything comes to him
who hustles while he waits."
                                                         – Thomas A. Edison

Hmmmm, let me think about that, Tom.

"Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action."
                                                                          – Benjamin Disraeli

About Benjamin Disraeli

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) was a novelist, dandy, and ultimately a politician — he served twice as prime minister of England, the first (and thus far only) Jewish man to hold that office. He introduced a number of domestic reforms, including the Factory Act, the Public Heath Act, and the Education Act, but is best remembered for his imperialist foreign policies. During his second ministry Britain annexed the Fiji Islands and the Transvaal, purchased a controlling share of the Suez Canal, and declared Queen Victoria the empress of India.

No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.
- Aesop

Security is a superstition--it does not exist in nature. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. 
                                                                                                             – Helen Keller

"One who is not content with what he has will not be content with what he wants to have."
- Socrates

 

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.
                                                                            – Ralph Waldo Emerson

A good rest is half the work. 
                                             Slavic Proverb

I need to focus not on the many answers that  might be wrong. All I need is the one answer that works.

I started to become an adult
when I realized that I had a
right not only to be right but
also to be wrong

As for worrying about what other people might think - I just forget it. They aren't
concerned about me. They're too busy worrying about what other people
and I think of them.
- Michael le Boeuf

"Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else's life forever."
                                                                                                   – Margaret Cho

About Margaret Cho

Margaret Cho, the outspoken Korean-American comedian and actor, made television history as the first Asian-American with her own TV series, All American Girl. She was born in 1968 in San Francisco and has mined her life for extremely successful one-woman shows, including I'm the One That I Want and Notorious C.H.O., both of which spawned albums, movie versions, and books. When not touring with her comedy, Cho works now in Hollywood as both an actress and a director.

You can't test courage cautiously

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues
have not yet been discovered."

-- Ralph Waldo Emersom
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

             Laugh a lot
              Love a lot
Life is still the best deal around

"The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it."
                                                                – John Ruskin

"Don't let the fear of striking out
hold you back."
                                    - Babe Ruth -Babe Ruth

"We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success."
                                                               – Henry David Thoreau

"This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought."
– Lin Yutang

About Lin Yutang

Chinese author Lin Yutang wrote more than 35 books in English and Chinese, including My Country and My People and The Importance of Living, which brought him international fame. He was born in 1895 in the Fujian province in China. He created a Chinese-American dictionary, an indexing system for Chinese letters, and translated many classic Chinese texts. Written in a humorous, accessible style, his books bridged European and Chinese cultures. He died in 1976.

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
                                                                       – T.S. Eliot

"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle."
                                                                    – George Orwell

About George Orwell

George Orwell was the pen name of English writer Eric Blair, best known for the satirical Animal Farm and the dystopian 1984. He was born in 1903 in India and raised in England. After school, he joined the Burmese police. He left after five years, disillusioned with colonialism, and lived in poverty while he taught himself to write. Following two rejections for Down and Out in Paris and London, he asked a friend to destroy the manuscript. She gave it to an agent instead, resulting in publication. He died in 1950.

"When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this — you haven't."
                                                                   – Thomas A. Edison

About Thomas A. Edison

Thomas Edison, the American inventor who made his early fortune with the stock ticker and the phonograph record, is credited with inventing the light bulb — although he simply improved upon the original idea by making the bulb burn longer. Edison was born in 1847 in Ohio. He was a dreamer in school; his teacher called him "addled," and his mother taught him at home. He used the money from his inventions to set up a lab with a number of employees; he held a record 1,093 patents in his name. He died in 1931.

"Every artist was first an amateur."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Tom, writing is no big deal. The only thing you can do wrong is quit."
                                Louise Duffy - 1951
                                             Teacher - 6th Grade
                                             Crete Elementary School
                                             Crete, Nebraska

"The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas."
                                                                    – Linus Pauling

About Linus Pauling

American chemist Linus Pauling is the only person ever awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes. He was born in Portland in 1901. He won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his breakthrough work on hemoglobins and proteins. He also originated the theory that DNA was formed in a double helix. He became a peace activist after studying fallout from nuclear bombs. His influence and work in concert with other scientists led to a test ban treaty and his second Nobel Prize, for Peace, in 1963. He died in 1994.

"Sometimes the best helping hand
  you can get is a good, firm push."

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
- Oscar Wilde

"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
                                                             – St. Francis of Assisi

About St. Francis of Assisi

St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and ecology in Catholicism, was born Giovanni "Francesco" Bernardone into a wealthy Italian merchant family in 1181. As a youth, he was known for carousing. After a series of illnesses, one of which occured while a prisoner of war, he had a spiritual awakening. God came to him in a vision and told him to build up his crumbling church. Taking the dream literally, he began rebuilding a local chapel. He took a vow of poverty and began traveling, preaching, and working to help the sick and the poor. A group formed around him, becoming the Franciscan order. He died in 1226.

   In order to live happy, joyous, and free, I had to give up boredom. At first that was not an easy choice to make, but it came out good.
   Even now, however, I occasionally balk at leaving a comfortable rut that I have created. 
   In the morning my left leg goes into my pants first. I brush my teeth with my right hand. My toilet paper unrolls over the top, not from underneath. I go to the grocery the same way every time. My phone answering message has not been changed in more than a year.
   Yesterday I discovered that I always bake potatoes wrapped in tinfoil. When I'm out of tinfoil I don't eat baked potatoes and I go into a funk.   
   None of these on their own are big deals, but I can improve the level of my happiness by changing only one little thing at a time.
   Oh, by the way, this is the first time I posted two entries on my blog on the same day. Ha! The idea still works.
   I can't explain this ... I'm just reporting.
                     Tom           

"Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life — learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some."
                                                               – Robert Fulghum

About Robert Fulghum

American author Robert Fulghum is best known for his book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, which dominated the New York Times best-seller list for nearly two years. He was born in 1937 in Texas. In his youth he worked at odd jobs, including ditchdigger, ranch hand, and singing cowboy. After a short career at IBM, he became a Unitarian minister. He has written eight best-selling books of essays. His anecdotes of everyday life encapsulate his down-home philosophy. He lives in Seattle, Washington and on the Greek Island of Crete.

"We must dare to think "unthinkable" thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world."
                                                                – James William Fulbright

About James William Fulbright

James William Fulbright, the US senator who represented Arkansas from 1945 to 1975, is memorialized in the Fulbright Prize, the international exchange program he created. He was born in 1905 in Missouri. As a congressman, he sponsored a resolution to form the peace-keeping organization that became the United Nations. As senator, he chaired the Foreign Relations Committee for 15 years. His book The Arrogance of Power critiques the government's involvement in the Vietnam War. He died in 1995.

"If you want something said,
     ask a man.
  If you want something done,
     ask a woman."
                                 -Margaret Thatcher

"Attempt something so large that failure is guaranteed unless God steps in."
                                 --Debra Kloor

I love this one so I'm repeating it from an earlier blog entry:

"Don't carry a grudge. While you're carrying a grudge, the other guy's out dancing."
                                                                 – Buddy Hackett

About Buddy Hackett

Buddy Hackett, the bawdy American comedian known for his high spirits and expressive face, primarily played comic roles in film and television but shined in his dramatic role in the 1979 TV movie Bud and Lou, about Abbott and Costello. He was born Leonard Hacker in Brooklyn in 1924. He made his reputation performing at nightclubs in the "Borscht Belt" of the Catskills resorts before bringing his act to Las Vegas in 1958. His television work includes the sitcom Stanley, which costarred a young Carol Burnett. He died in 2003.

SUCCESS REQUIRES NO APOLOGIES;
      FAILURE PERMITS NO ALIBIS.
                                  - Think and Grow Rich
                                           Napoleon Hill

"Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough."
Oprah Winfrey

 

"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter.
              Try again. 
     Fail again. Fail better."

Great minds have purposes, little minds have wishes. 
                                                                – Washington Irving

About Washington Irving

Washington Irving, known for such stories as "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle," is considered by many the father of the American short story. He was born in New York in 1783. Although he ultimately returned to New York, he lived in Europe for 17 years, working for the US Embassy. His extensive travels through the southern and western United States led to books about his tours. He took many years to recover from the death of his fiancée in 1809 and never married. He died in 1859.

Do you believe this?
"It is better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life."
                              Some People Do.

"It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly."
                                                                 – Isaac Asimov

About Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov, the American author known as one of the top writers of science fiction's golden age, penned nearly 500 fiction and nonfiction books, including the Foundation trilogy and I, Robot. Born in 1920 in Russia, he moved to the US with his parents at age three. As a teen, he would read pulp magazines in his parents' candy store and became inspired to write his own stories. His fiction frames interesting ideas in a bare-bones narrative. He died in 1992.

"We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results."
                                                                        – Herman Melville

About Herman Melville

American author Herman Melville is best known for his epic whaling novel, Moby-Dick, which wasn't recognized as a masterpiece until after his death. He was born in New York in 1819. At age 20, he went to sea on a whaling ship. His seafaring adventures included time with cannibals in the Marquesas Islands, the basis for his successful novel Typee. His later, more philosophical, novels were not as well received as his early adventure yarns, and he died in obscurity in 1891.

"Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt and dance like no one is watching."
                                         -Sachiel Page

(Before this one, the famous quote from this ancient major league baseball pitcher was: "Don't Look Back, Something Might Be Gaining On You.")  Satchel Paige

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal."
- Henry Ford

"There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up."
                                                                                  Booker T. Washington

About Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington, the influential American educator, was the first African-American to be invited to the White House; he also had tea with Queen Victoria. He was born in slavery in Virginia in 1856. After emancipation, he worked in the salt mines. When he learned of a school that would accept former slaves, he walked much of the 400 miles to get there. He became an outspoken advocate of education and hard work for African-Americans and founded Tuskegee University. He died in 1915.

"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be."
- Abraham Maslow

"The great challenge of adulthood is holding on to your idealism after you lose your innocence."
                                                             Bruce Springsteen

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak,
but their echoes are truly endless."
- Mother Teresa

Another Quote From Mark Twain:
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream!"

 

 

Twain

"Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact."
                                                                 – William James

"Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring."
                                                               – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
                                                                        – Mark Twain

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
                                                                 – Eleanor Roosevelt

Countless unseen details usually are the only difference between mediocre and magnificent.

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the Master calls a butterfly.

"Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him."
                                                                        – Aldous Huxley

"Gratitude is the open door to abundance."

"The one thing all famous authors, world class athletes, business tycoons, singers, actors, and celebrated achievers in any field have in common is that they all began their journeys when they were none of these things. Yet still, they began their journeys."
                                                 Mike Dooley
- Mike

"What a fearful object a long-neglected duty gets to be!"
- Chauncey Wright

"Don't let other people tell you what you want."
                                                                                       – Pat Riley

           Where Did The Month Go?

No record better reveals the gap in my January, 2010 life than my blog site. I started the year and then, <puff>, the month was over.

Where did it go?

Two old hernias seized control on my body system and early one morning I found myself riding an ambulance to the emergency room at Boulder Community Hospital.

Thereafter I met numerous dedicated medical people who plied their training and experience to the task of saving my life and restoring my health.

Here's to everyone there, especially Dr. Charlie Jones, the world's greatest general surgeon. His quick and accurate diagnosis, followed at once by his surgery skills, again saved my life. Three cheers!

I had met Dr. Jones five or six years ago with the same life-saving needs, just arising from different causes. 

Correct mention of this 2010 medical event must be made: I remain alive, sober, sane, and useful by the grace of a loving God who often works through people. They are not gods; they just do his bidding.

There were such folks in my life during January 2010. Sure they all weren't great surgeons, but they formed a core team (dare I call them a God Squad?) who helped me carry on.

They were from down the street and from the far-away Czech Republic; from Harvard and from Front Range Community College; from Kenya and from Alaska. They all added something essential to my life and I now have a small part of them in me, with me, always.

Dr. Charlie Jones was the captain, but they all were mates on God's ship.

I pray that you too have a Doctor Charlie in your life. Unless you were born with saint-like spirituality, you might make some human mistakes in your life as I have done in mine. If that occurs, we all need a Charlie Jones and crew to stand by and help give us another chance.

I am grateful to be alive, sober, sane and useful today. When I squeeze out the adjectives, the punctuation, and all the excess verbage, I have left only the loving God who gets all the credit.


                       With Respect & Gratitude,
                                                              Tom
                        http://aronbestsellers.com

"Far away in the sunshine are my highest inspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead."
                                                                         – Louisa May Alcott

About Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott, the beloved American author, is best known for her semiautobiographical novel, Little Women, which was made into a movie five different times. Born in 1832 near Philadelphia, she grew up in Massachusetts. Her family lived in the genteel poverty depicted in her fiction. She wrote lurid stories anonymously to bring in money but gained fame under her own name with young adult novels, which held readers with their warm characterizations and simple, engaging style. She died in 1888.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
- Martin Luther

"If a little dreaming is silly and a waste of time, the remedy for it is not to dream less but to dream more. Dream powerfully!"