Fifty years ago........................

Simon & Garfunkel..................Bridge Over Troubled Water

The more things change.................

Many people seem to be wondering what will become of the human soul in another world.  I am wondering what has become of the human mind in this world.

-Gilbert Keith Chesterton, from his 1928 essay, The Rout of Reason

A bias for action....................

     Favoring action over inaction, even in the face of uncertainty, is generally a good approach to life.  The world rewards energy, and it even rewards failure by teaching you valuable lessons and expanding your network of contacts.

-Scott Adams,  Loserthink:  How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America

Fifty years ago.........................

The Marmalade..................................Reflections Of My Life



Released in November, 1969, this tune was a Top 10 hit for 1970

About the mind.........................

      Just as it is the nature of fire to burn, it is the nature of the mind to think and wander all the time.  The mind is comprised  of thoughts and doubts.  It constantly casts up dreams and fantasies, creating its own world and then destroying it.  It builds thought castles in the sky and then gets entangled in its own creation.  In this way, it creates its own suffering and undergoes the consequences.  Some modern psychologists believe that the mind can be satisfied if you let it run free, if you let it have whatever it wants.  But this is not the case.  The mind can never be satisfied in this way;  it will always create a mountain of desires.

-Swami Muktananda,  Mystery of the Mind

Fifty years ago..................

Eddie Holman......................Hey There Lonely Girl



Released in December of 1969, this tune peaked as a Billboard #2 in 1970

Fifty years ago........................

The Jaggerz.........................................................The Rapper

On the virtue of being not stupid..........

Because we are so wrong, so often, and because avoiding error provides more benefit than being right does, when we have the choice between being right and being kind, we should choose kind. Every. Single. Time.

-Robert P. Seawright (a long time Cleveland Browns fan) as he ends this essay

On major vs. minor......................

"If there is one thing worse than the modern weakening of major morals it is the modern strengthening of minor morals. . . . A man's minor actions and arrangements ought to be free, flexible, creative;  the things that should be unchangeable are his principles, his ideals."

-Gilbert Keith Chesterton, as culled from his essay On Lying In Bed

Fifty years ago.....................

The Blues Image..........................................Ride Captain Ride

As compared to what......................?

     "People who have been trained in decision-making understand that you can't evaluate things in isolation. . . . If you have a strong opinion about a proposed plan but you have not compared it to the next best alternative, you are not part of a rational conversation."

-Scott Adams, Loserthink:  How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America

All things in moderation................

     The archer who overshoots the target misses as much as the one who does not reach it.  Any my eyes trouble me as much when I raise them suddenly to a strong light as when I drop them into the shadow.  Callicles, in Plato, says that the extremity of philosophy is harmful, and advises us not to plunge into beyond the limits of profit; that taken with moderation, it is pleasant and advantageous, but that in the end it makes a man wild and vicious, disdainful of common religions and laws, an enemy of social intercourse, an enemy of human pleasures, incapable of any political administration and of helping others of himself, fit to be slapped with impunity.  He speaks truly, for in its excess it enslaves our natural freedom and, by importunate subtlety, leads us astray from the fine and level road that nature has traced for us.

-Michel De Montaigne, from his essay, Of Moderation

In the background....................

Santana....................................................the Inner Secrets album

no anxiety.....................

"The solar system has no anxiety about its reputation . . ."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, from his essay, Worship

Non-prediction predictions............

All ten of these will likely be true over the course of 2020.  A sample or three:

2. Something will happen that doesn’t make any sense at all. There’s sure to be something that catches investors off-guard in 2020. Something is bound to defy expectations whether it involves geopolitics, irrational market movements, corporate takeovers, huge gainers, huge losers, or any number of crazy news, events, or performance moves. I’ve learned I’ll almost always be surprised by markets to some degree. So the trick is to not be surprised that you’re surprised because these things can be completely random at times.

4. There will be other people getting richer than you. Fear and greed often influence investors into making mistakes with their money. But envy is probably a more destructive force. Seeing your peers, friends, or even perfect strangers making money faster than you can cause some strange emotions and reactions. This is true in down markets as well. Someone is bound to put on the right hedge or trade at an opportune time. When that happens you will always regret not doing the same

10. Everything will look obvious after the fact. The fact that stocks have rocketed higher and interest rates fell like a rock in 2019 feels pretty obvious in hindsight. Who couldn’t have seen this coming what with all the central bank easing? Hindsight makes the past look more explainable than it actually was while uncertainty seems to always be at an all-time high about what’s going to happen in the future. But that’s always been the case and will always be the case. No one can predict the future but we can all craft beautiful narratives about the past. Whatever 2020 has in store for us, it will only be clear with the benefit of hindsight.

What if............................

A small, inconsequential experiment. But I wonder: If instead of giving speeches, making promises, or berating opponents during their town hall meetings and political rallies, what if our politicians asked the question: “What are your hopes for America for 2020?”

And then listened to the answers.

-as cut-and-pasted from here

Possibilities for greatness.............

-     Don't be in the business of playing it safe.  Be in the business of creating possibilities for greatness.

-     If you walk down the halls constantly telling people "the sky is falling," a sense of doom and gloom will, over time, permeate the company.  You can't communicate pessimism to the people around you.  It's ruinous to morale.  No one wants to follow a pessimist.

-     Optimism emerges from faith in yourself and in the people who work for you.  It's not about saying things are good when they're not, and it's not about conveying some blind faith that 'things will work out."  It's about believing in your and others' abilities.

-Robert Iger, as parceled out from his list of 45 Lessons To Lead By, found at the conclusion of The Ride of a Lifetime:  Lessons Learned From 15 Years As CEO of  The Walt Disney Company

Fifty years ago..............................

George Harrison...............................................My Sweet Lord

As resolutions go........................

             via

In the background...................

Stan Getz's album.....................................More Getz For Lovers
(with Dizzy Gillespie adding his horn on this track)