Something To Think About Archive

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.”

“Nothing much happens without a dream;” claimed author Robert Greenleaf. “For something really great to happen, it takes a really great dream.”

A belated “Congratulations” to California voters for overwhelmingly passing Proposition 36 to toughen penalties for shoplifting and fentanyl crimes, and for ousting Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón who refused to aggressively prosecute crimes, was a champion of “No Cash” bail, and oversaw a murder rate that shot to double the state average.

Robert Schuller once observed that “Again and again the impossible problem is solved when we see that the impossible problem is only a tough decision waiting to be made.”

Chief Seattle said: “Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

As Herbert Hoover once observed: “About the time we make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends.”

“What I learned early was that there was always somebody who knew more about a thing than you did;” journalist Jim Hoagland once noted, “and the trick was to ask them the right question.”

According to the late Quincy Jones, “… it’s easier to get where you’re going if you know where you came from.”

It’s too bad that Donald Trump is listening to Don, Jr for his Cabinet picks and thus has preemptively, albeit politely, rejected both Mike Pompeo, who was a credible CIA Director and Secretary of State; and Nikki Haley a strong U.N. Ambassador who represented America’s interests in that body better than her most recent predecessors. Both believe in robust U.S. leadership in the world, including support for Ukraine, NATO, and alliances in the Pacific that could help thwart Trump’s main target – China.

As Zig Zigler once noted: “Winning is not everything, but the effort to win is.”

Scottish politician Gordon Wilson believed that “If you’re not failing at some things, you’re not risking enough.”

Author John Steinbeck once noted that “Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to deal with them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.”

Columnist Liz Smith advises us to “Begin somewhere. You cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do.”

Eleanor Roosevelt said: “We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.”

Google, along with Microsoft, Amazon and other tech giants, will back new nuclear-power plants and jump-start a nuclear revival in the U.S. to help feed its growing appetite for electricity to power AI. Google has committed to buying power generated by seven small reactors. Microsoft is planning to buy energy from a restarted Three Mile Island reactor. It’s interesting to watch these self-proclaimed “Green” companies become real energy hogs as one mini-reactor will run a small city of 100,000 homes – or one AI data center.

You can face adversity in one of two ways: Step Up or Give Up.

Basketball great Michael Jordan, reflecting on his numerous missed opportunities in games, notes: “I have failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

According to columnist Liz Smith, “If you don’t place your foot on the rope, you’ll never cross the chasm.”

Leadership professor John Kotter notes that “The time and energy required for effective communication are directly related to the clarity and simplicity of the message.”

Coach K points out that “When you first assemble a group, it’s not a team right off the bat. It’s only a collection of individuals.”