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By madpoet, July 25, 2011 5:30 pm

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The prompt for this day says to take a big hairy life goal that you haven’t started yet, or that you have been having a hard time with, and write down three uncertainties – fears – that you have concerning it. Then break that down a little further and write three reasons for the fear. That’s a good idea, and I may get to that in a future post, but first I have to address the quote. I have a fundamental problem with the first part of this little couplet, because I believe it may contradict the second part. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself? Yes – By submitting to and following correct principles. Because it’s too easy to use that first part to say that “I am a law unto myself.” Without the appropriate perception and attitude, you can spend a lot of time beating your head into walls and thinking that you’re pursuing peace. You don’t get to the moon and back without an understanding of life sciences, gravity, metallurgy, navigation, physics, etc. With the right understanding of the principles involved, even the sky isn’t the limit.

So, what are the principles that we have to adhere to? What principles exist that we can cling to? Are there any?

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By madpoet, June 20, 2011 5:50 pm

Well, I think this will qualify as strange, if nothing else. Wild rambling, stream of consciousness, and cheating by way of audio posting.

Maybe I should say it’s not cheating. It’s “Media enriched.”

Trust30 #14 - Wholly Strange and New [ 9:37 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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By madpoet, June 3, 2011 10:19 pm

Thought I wouldn’t get this in, didn’t you?

Yeah. Me too.

Here’s the quote:

That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. Where is the master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? . . . Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare. Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much. – Ralph Waldo Emerson