Posts Tagged ‘Motivation’
The Flower Next To Me
“A flower does not think of competing to the flower next to it. It just blooms.” Zen Shin In 1724, a German physicist living in the Dutch Republic proposed a comparative scale for measuring temperature. He based his scale on three points: the low point as the freezing temperature of an ammonium salt brine solution…
Read MoreImperfectly Happy
Champagne was “invented” in 1531 by Benedictine monks in the Abbey of Saint-Hilaire near Carcassonne, France. They bottled wine before the initial fermentation had ended, causing the byproduct of the fermentation, carbon dioxide, to be trapped in solution in the bottled wine. It would be a century before Christopher Merret detailed what is now called…
Read MoreCars & Coffee
I attended Cars & Coffee with my youngest son Chris this past Saturday. This is an informal gathering of car enthusiasts in the parking lot of a local shopping center. I would guess more than 200 cars are there on a typical first Saturday of each month. My son drives a late model Honda Civic Sport EX. He…
Read MoreHallmark Of A Good Life
After we had eaten our turkey, dressing, and potatoes smothered in gravy and had a second piece of pie, it was acceptable to start Christmas. Many of you already know my rule, no Christmas until after Thanksgiving. One unintended consequence of this mandate occurs the Friday after Thanksgiving when we attempt to put up all…
Read MoreWe Want A Shrubbery
In the 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, King Arthur and his band are blocked by the dreaded Knights Who Say “Ni!” in an enchanted forest. “We want a shrubbery,” demands the giant Knight, adding, “One that looks nice…and not too expensive.” King Arthur delivers a “shrubbery” after a short (hilarious) quest, but the…
Read MoreThe Good, The Bad, and The Best
What is good? Art, food, design, music, architecture, business…in basically every creative endeavor we find ourselves assigning value to the work of others. Why are some paintings hanging in museums and others are never seen by anyone other than the artist? Why are some songs by some artists played on the radio incessantly while others…
Read MoreGet Fresh Flow
The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times . . . The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Mihály Csíkszentmihályi If you identified the title of this musing as a lyric…
Read MoreRed Flag
Sunday, September 6, something happened at the Italian Grand Prix that has not happened in an F1 race in eight years. Under the sun at Monza, the podium (first three places) did not include Mercedes, Ferrari, or Red Bull drivers. Third place was a driver who had only been on the podium once before (in…
Read MoreHunting For Treasure
Forrest Fenn is a retired art dealer, businessman, and U.S. Air Force veteran who lives near Santa Fe, New Mexico. About a decade ago, he hid a bronze chest filled with gold and jewels somewhere in the Rocky Mountains of the United States. The clues that could lead someone to find the treasure were contained…
Read MoreSoda And Snake Oil
On May 25, 1992, Victoria Angelo listened intently to the evening news on television from her tin-roofed shack in one of Manila’s more squalid slums. For weeks before, Pepsi’s advertisements, splashed all over Philippine newspapers, radio and TV, were hardly subtle: “Today, you could be a millionaire!” The unemployed mother of five and her husband,…
Read More