Whitey Herzog – Hall of Famer

I always liked to hear Whitey Herzog interviews because you never knew what he was going to say, and his teams were always fun to watch.  He’s being inducted into the Hall of Fame, and I enjoyed this article by Glenn Liebman in ESPN online: Five Top Whitey Herzog Quotes.

Five Top Whitey Herzog Quotes

1. "Baseball has been good to me since I quit trying to play it."

-- Whitey Herzog, on his future

Getty Images

2. "What we could use is a couple of shutouts, but I don't know if that would be good enough to win."

-- Whitey Herzog, on a weak-hitting Cardinal team that he managed

3. "Your life or mine?"

-- Whitey Herzog, after being offered a lifetime contract by 80-year-old Cardinals owner Gussie Busch

4. "He got hit so hard that I had to get all the married men off the field."

-- Whitey Herzog, on pitcher Ken Dayley

5. "If they fire me, I'll be the highest paid fisherman in the country."

-- Whitey Herzog, on rumors about being fired

Technorati Tags: baseball,Whitey Herzog,Humor,Quotes

Did you ever…

“Did you ever walk in a room and forget why you walked in? I think that's how dogs spend their lives.”    ----Sue Murphy

I think I might be a dog. 

Often.

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Don’t be Afraid to See What You See*

I’ve always thought that this brief sentence was profound.  So many times we are afraid to see things as they really are, whether because of fears, ideology, embarrassment,whatever.  What is really happening will go ahead and happen whether we acknowledge it or not, and sometimes the consequences of avoiding or ignoring what is happening can be pretty serious.  An example:  Well, most people who have heart attacks don’t acknowledge that they are having a heart attack.  Perhaps they are afraid of dying, or afraid that it will be embarrassing if they call an ambulance but turn out to just have gas.  I’m sure there are myriad reasons why we don’t acknowledge the reality that we are having a heart attack,but the reality is that about half of us deny that little voice inside us when it says “You’re having a heart attack.”  This advice, taken to heart and applied just to heart attacks would save thousands of lives each year.  

In a more ethereal, but no less important way, it is impossible to achieve deep personal emotional development without accepting this simple idea.  Psychologists understand that we are only able to fully develop as people, parents, artists, athletes, leaders, etc, if we are willing to look at ourselves and accept the truth of what we see.  Introspection is the essential ingredient in personal development, and in achieving our potential in most every activity or role we play in life.  Without the willingness to ‘see what we see’; to examine our actions, motivations, beliefs and desires, we simply cannot adapt them, or adapt our behaviors to achieve better results or deeper fulfillment, happiness, etc.

I believe that most of the time, we know what our failings and shortcomings are, just as we know most of the things we need to do to accomplish the things we desire.  Sometimes we choose to acknowledge these, and we are able to improve upon them and achieve, or find deeper personal fulfillment.  To a large extent the role of a therapist, coach, clergyman, etc., is to facilitate in us a greater level of introspection.  I know that they also provide information that helps in our development (dribble the ball with your fingertips, for example), but a large part of what they do is help us to face our fears and see what we see.

“Accept the things to which fate binds you… Love the people with whom fate brings you together…do so with all your heart.”   ---Marcus Aurelius

 

Technorati Tags: Philosophy,interospection,acceptance,Marcus Aurelius,Ronald Reagan quotes

*-I am only giving attribution for the quote here at the end because I wanted to avoid the extraneous prejudices and resulting sidetracking of the idea that various opinions of the person to whom this quote is attributed would have caused.  The quote is attributed to Ronald Reagan.

                                                 

Another Theodore Roosevelt Gem

If we begin to think that the corruption we see in Washington and on Wall Street is something new, we need only read up on the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.  It is not new.  The abbreviated version is contained in the following quote:

"A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad."
                                                        --Theodore Roosevelt

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A Book is Man's Best Friend...

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."       --Groucho

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You Don't Understand. No, I Think it is YOU Who Does Not Understand...

“ When I was 5 years old, my mom always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy.” They told me I didn’t understand the assignment and I told them they didn’t understand life. "

The author is unknown to me, as I read the quote online and no attribution was given.  Whoever it was, it was a wonderful bit of insight and one many of us could do with a reminder of.

Technorati Tags: Quotes,wisdom quote,insight

Good or Bad, You get on with it.

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."                                            --Robert Frost

Sometimes the greatest wisdom slips by unnoticed, disguised as ordinary and hidden in plain sight.  I always thought that this statement by Robert Frost was deeply insightful, and to avoid only picking a poet as a surrogate for expressing this wise point of view, it reminds me of the dialogue in Tombstone when Doc Holiday is dying in the sanitarium and Wyatt Earp tells him he just doesn't know how to live anymore.  Holiday's (Val Kilmer's) well-written and well-acted reply was an earnest and soft: "It's just life, Wyatt.  You get on with it."  And really, the more I reflect on this idea, the more I come to feel that there is wisdom enough to live a fine life just by listening and remembering this idea often.  Ultimately, with or without our consent and participation, life goes on.

Technorati Tags: Tombstone,Quotes,Wisdom quote,live now,Robert Frost

My Life has a Superb Cast...

The Quality of Life is in the Quality of Living

"Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on Earth."
                                                                     —Mark Twain

Sometimes, if you are like me, it takes a simple thought, simply expressed to cut through the sheer speed of living.  With so many things to do, and so much information, and so much to buy and operate and watch and read and listen to, it can be pretty easy to be swept up in doing things, owning things and being active.  What's wrong with that?  Well, nothing in and of itself.  We must own some things to live, must we not?  We must do some things, and take action.  Still, it is all too easy anymore to find ones' life reduced to an endless high-speed string of activities, consumption and belongings.  We pursue the 'good life' in the form of these things, and at least some of the time we come unmoored to the simplest truths in life.  In having so much, and doing so much, and taking care of the many obligations that come from doing and having so much, we can easily begin to equate these things (consciously or otherwise) with happiness and success in life. 

When I see a sentence or two like this quote from Mark Twain, I am reminded that it is not the volume of belongings, or activities, or information that brings me satisfaction.  The happiest and most satisfying moments in my life revolve around people - family, friends.  They revolve around time - time to interact with them, share and make memories with them.  They depend on good health to enjoy, and and opportunity to be together. Often enough, the pace of life actually weakens the experience of family and friends - draws off some of the depth from the interaction.  We can become distracted and miss the moments that afford us so much of the satisfaction we find in life.  When we are distracted, self conscious, only partially engaged, though we are able to be together, we are not quite together. 

When we have the chance - time, health, companions - to really live, it is good advice indeed to value it.  And more, to be uninhibited about taking advantage of the moment and living it.  No matter how much we have, or how much we do, the quality of our lives derives far more from how we live our moments than where we live them, or what we own.  

Technorati Tags: Mark Twain quote,quality of life,self help

Good Advice on Tax Policy

"A nation trying to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to pull himself up by the handles." 

                                                        --Winston Churchill

Technorati Tags: politics,Obama tax plan,taxes,tax policy,Churchill quotes,Churchill on taxes

Ask an Unwelcome Question, Get Boycotted

WTVF television in Orlando ran a scheduled interview with Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden.  In the interview, the anchor asked Biden a question about the recent comment by Barack Obama that seemed to indicate that he wanted to tax higher incomes and 'spread the wealth around'.  Having read Karl Marx, I admit, that the same quote that the anchor used in asking her question popped into my mind at the time I heard Obama's remark: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

The Obama-Biden campaign immediately canceled an interview the station was planning to do with Jill Biden: "There's nothing wrong with tough questions, but reporters have the very important job of sharing the truth with the public -- not misleading the American people with false information. Senator Biden handled the interview well; however, the anchor was completely unprofessional. Senator Biden's wife is not running for elected office, and there are many other stations in the Orlando television market that would gladly conduct a respectful and factual interview with her." "This cancellation is non-negotiable, and further opportunities for your station to interview with this campaign are unlikely, at best for the duration of the remaining days until the election."

Now I can understand why it is politically inconvenient to have Marxism introduced into a campaign, and the polls have reflected some impact to the Obama campaign since the comment concerning spreading the wealth around was made.  But in looking at the two statements, I just simply cannot see the difference between:

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" and "I think when you spread the wealth around, it is good for everybody." 

(Note: I imagine that at whatever level you set the bar and begin taking wealth from some and spreading it around to others there may be some mumbling about the "good for everyone" part of this comment).

Is there a big difference in those two quotes that I am not seeing?  Marx advocated more comprehensive redistribution of wealth (essentially leveling out wealth across the population), but the idea certainly seems to be compatible with Marx's views.  You could surely see that Biden was incensed, indignant and angry to be asked about Marxist leanings (though the idea that the remark was essentially reflective of a socialist point of view), and I can understand not wanting to have his campaign labeled as socialist or Marxist.  But I truly don't see why asking this question was 'completely unprofessional'.  There are people all over the country debating whether Obama's comment reflects a real desire to be a modern day Robin Hood, socialism, etc., but when an anchor mentions it to the candidate?  Bam! No soup for you! 

I wonder if this is a hint about how the Obama White House might handle 'the wrong kind' of questions from the press in the future? 

Oh, and one more thing that occurred to me when I saw Biden's response:  he was way too upset to be asked a question he despised.  The image that popped into my head was of a former president, angry as hell at a reporter who had the temerity to question him: "I did not have sex with that woman - Miss Lewinksy". 

Technorati Tags: Biden,socialist,Marxist,politics,2008 election,media

A Couple of Notes from Today on the Campaign Trail

Today I've witnessed two rather blatant examples of the kind of character assassination and ordinary meanness that has come to characterize politics and this campaign:

First, Barack Obama is taking part of two days off from campaigning to go to Hawaii. Now when I first heard this as a headline I thought, "Wow". Then a few minutes later I heard the details. He is going to visit his grandmother - the woman who virtually raised him - at her home. She has been ill lately, and broker her hip just last week.

So how does this show rancorous campaign behavior? Well, think about the headline I heard. It made the trip sound like a vacation, when it is indeed anything but a vacation. But it got worse. During the day I have read and heard comments and questions speculating about whether the trip is a political stunt to make Obama look more human and less detached, or whether he would be visiting his grandmother if he wasn't well ahead in the polls. That people are so focused on defeating the opponent, using every action or statement if a way to use it to discredit can be found. All that needs to be said about Senator Obama's visit to his grandmother is that he is taking two days to spend with his seriously ill grandmother. Period.

Second, I happened upon this gem from Malia Lazu, a Democratic strategist who was appearing on Neil Cavuto's show:

"If you have been lucky, to achieve your dream and it is a lot larger than everyone else, then as an American you should want to babies learn how to read, go to doctors and have schools."

This is an example of a couple things in my mind. Just look at the language she chose to use and you'll see some demagoguery and a clear indication that she views anyone who succeeds financially as having taken advantage of someone to do so. She also manages to use the royal 'should', to tell us that if we are decent people we must view this as she does. Here's what we learn from that brief remark:

1. People who succeed financially are 'lucky'.

2. People who achieve a dream that is a lot larger than everyone else (this tells us that the success described here is excessive).

3. If you are decent, a decent American you should (must) want to pay more taxes for the benefit of others.

4. The demagoguery comes last, where she takes a discussion of what sort of tax policy is best, fair, etc. and introduces the welfare of 'babies'. In other words, if you don't agree with her, even though she has made it clear that decent Americans should, then you must be against babies being educated and healthy.

Nauseating. If I had started out agreeing with her I would have to fight myself not to change my opinion just to avoid being linked in any way with this statement and the beliefs it reveals. She later went on to say that people who have made money have done so "on the backs of others".

So on the one hand, there are people who cannot help themselves and must question whether Obama visiting his ailing Grandmother is a political stunt, while on the other hand we are told that if we don't agree with raising taxes on the highest earners we support sick and uneducated babies. See why I hate the way politics are making us behave? Coarse, base, judgmental and, as Dana Carvey might say, "just a wee bit superior."

Reagan on Freedom

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."
Ronald Reagan

The Man in the Arena

"It 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 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, and comes short again and again because there is not effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the 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 he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt

The Roots of Violence

The Roots of Violence:

Wealth without work,

Pleasure without conscience,

Knowledge without character,

Commerce without morality,

Science without humanity,

Worship without sacrifice,

Politics without principles.

Ghandi