Is a choice between two evils Even a choice at all? And the middle is mediocre If that’s where the chips fall The balance of all power Remains in the hands of a few So the systems maintain If the parties are one or two Where corruption can be stamped out And happiness prevails Any system promoting self-interest Will be the one that fails
The real object of pity is the person who has never been through adversity.
Seneca
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful to meet all my new students yesterday. They all look cute, happy and expectant.
It’s not luck that gained success Things didn’t just fall into place Good preparation, good decisions Kept everything within its grace Hard work and perseverance Never giving up on the goal Fall down and get up again Choosing things within control
The difference between good and great results is often found in consistently doing the boring things you know you should do when you feel like doing them the least.
Farnam Street
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful for my big selection of shirts to wear. This one is too small so I will swap.
Words are written to fan the flames Generate outrage with magic games Knowing nothing except the names Of all those whom the writer blames Propaganda pushed to every screen Harmony must remain a dream The devil, front and centre, seen More dangerous than it’s ever been Heroes forever dashing hopes Innocents on hanging ropes Testing how its society copes Forever sliding down slippery slopes
*Inspired by and title appropriated from Caitlin Johnstone
What are you going to believe, the facts or your eyes?
Ronald Reagan official
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful for this mango jam that Amy’s mum made and the bagel that Nong Nut made.
Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.
Charles Adams
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful that Cap is eating and acting normal again. Also for the delicious wholegrain bread Nut gave me yesterday. Ate it all already.
Boris knew he was the one But refused the offer many times Only when it was insisted Did he fall in with the signs And George, he was the same Saying he didn’t want to lead He kept saying no, no, no Until he finally agreed It’s a thinking man’s game So be most suspicious It’s a clever way to play To seem so unambitious
Paraphrasing Robert Greene’s Daily Laws for 20th May
Education is an imperfect shield against custom and tradition. In some ways, you may judge us still to be a little backward.
Kukrit Pramoj
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful that Cap woke up from his general anaesthetic yesterday. He’s still slow and grumpy but slowly recovering.
It’s a messy room to live Misunderstood and bent sinister Yet never felt better in its life Your future are missing winner Heads rolled, sure they did A grotesque psykick dancehall A triad-plus hip preist The Smiths predict the fall Always seen Totale’s turning A solvent wax to levitate It’s a caustic user syndrome A kurious work to extricate Mangled language perverted A sublingual tablet bends From the click of the country To experiments of frenz From the time the north was hit The house was full of ghosts A mesmerising miasma A dream lie fiery jack a-toasts
Listening through the Hanley brothers ‘Oh! Brother’ podcast and falling in love with English accents.
The empire is not worries about the spread of disinformation, they’re worried about the spread of information.
Caitlin Johnstone
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful to see all the birds in the garden, eating all the newborn insects, which come in their millions.
When it’s decided nothing is decided What is left over will remain divided Rewritten histories and redrawn maps Humanity adjusts to new handicaps Once the war is over it’s only just begun Here comes another, and another one Victory propaganda, revisionist extolling Amounts to nothing as the tanks keep rolling
I am here, living, and in the depths of my existence there is a thirst and hunger, and I find joy in partaking of the bread and wine of life from the vases which I make and fashion by my own hands.
Yusif, The Tempest by Kahlil Gibran
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful to see all my students again. They make me happy and I’m already back to dreaming about them and thinking about our classes. It’s like my brain switched on again.
Yeah, we’re gonna make it But only by the skin of our teeth Possibly we’ll break it But somewhere we have to find belief Maybe we’ll mistake it For an eternity all too brief Probably we’ll fake it Wallowing in an illusion of relief
The more you have to lose, the more fragile you are.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful for an extra day off school. I could get a lot of writing, reading and guitaring done. Bonus.
Caught in my first impression Trapped by a spider’s smile The tail-wagging dog bites The hand after a while
Escape at the realisation Is never a pretty sight to behold Be better to live with the mess If the truth be told
From Eric Barker’s newsletter:
How do we make love last? A lot of people fear that if they raise issues with their partner it can lead to arguing and that will end the relationship. So they stay silent…
But it is doubleplusungood wrongthink to believe that complaining is a problem. The research shows bottling up actually ends more marriages than arguing. Complaining, in the big picture, is actually a positive – it gets issues out in the open where they can be resolved. What leads to divorce isn’t complaining; it’s criticism.
Complaining is actually healthy for a marriage. It’s criticism that predicts divorce. Complaining is when I say you did not take the trash out. Criticism is when I say you did not take the trash out because you’re a horrible person. The first is about an event, the second is about your fundamental personality. To keep your relationship solid, turn your criticisms into complaints. Address the event, not the person.
To say that criticism is bad for a relationship is like saying “The Grand Canyon is kinda big.” True but insufficient. Researcher John Gottman found it was one of four things that predicted divorce 83.3% of the time.
So don’t be afraid to raise that issue — but don’t make it personal. Address the problem, not their character. This leads to conversations that actually make your relationship stronger.
Whilst I’m inclined to agree with the above sentiment, I thought about how this has played out in my life. Another factor that came into play for me was low self-esteem. So that when my partner may have been complaining, I took it personally as criticism. This is particularly what ended my marriage with Bronwyn, along with a whole bunch of other factors that added up to become too much for me to deal with.
I’m much better with this these days but it can still rear its ugly head from time to time, though I’m usually aware of it even if I can’t put my finger on it.
He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.
John Stuart Mill
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful to see Hayden starting to do some rewarding work this week. I hope it makes him feel fulfilled and happy.
Shake yourself out of smug satisfaction Are you perfectly formed? Happy and disgraced Apply the training beyond your aspiration The destination always remains misplaced
True action, food and radiant action…grows out of the suffering which you have not yet learned to suffer.
Hermann Hesse
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful for the tree-cutting tool Amy’s dad brought yesterday. making it easier to hack away some branches that needed doing.
1994ever 