Something To Think About Archive

On this first day of a new year, we reflect upon Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement speech at Stanford. He said: “I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

As the White House considers pre-emptive pardons for officials not yet convicted or even accused of breaking the law, we can’t help but wonder: What have our so-called “Leaders” been up to these past years that they require such unprecedented forgiveness?

Henry van Dyke “Every mountain is, rightly considered, an invitation to climb.”

As writer Barbara Taylor Bradford said: “Character is what drives everything forward.”

Educator and lecturer Randy Pausch believed that “Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.”

Choosing Oregon Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer as his Labor Secretary has us a bit perplexed as she supported the pro-union, anti-worker so-called PRO Act which seeks to reclassify tens of millions of independent contractors as employees therefore giving them less flexibility and autonomy in their working lives.

Columnist Burton Hillis once observed that “The best gift around any Christmas tree is the presence of a happy family wrapped in love.”

Tonight is a time to believe in magic, to hold onto wonder, and to let the spirit of the season light up the darkest night.

According to Calvin Coolidge, “Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.”

Tennis great Arthur Ashe believed that “Everybody must learn to lose because you can’t play the game if you can’t take losing.”

Actress Tallulah Bankhead, from the so-called “Golden Age” of Hollywood claimed that “If I had my life to live over, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.”

Author and poet John Seaman Garns wrote: “Real leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determination.”

Woodrow Wilson wisely noted that “I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow.”

According to Calvin Coolidge, “Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.”

David Starr Jordan, founding president of Stanford said: “Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it.”

Businessman Max DePree believed that “We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.”

Film director Billy Wilder once noted that “You’re only as good as the best thing you have ever done.”

Mark Twain said: “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.”

According to author Mary Shelley, “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”

As the Trump Cabinet takes shape, some picks good, some not so much in our opinion but, we do like the idea of cutting costs and waste including eliminating some Departments altogether, like Education, whose prevue belongs with the states. We’re reminded by Thomas Jefferson who said: “The government is best which governs least.”