Fly on...........................................

Derek and the Dominos.....................................Little Wing

Well she's walking through the clouds
With a circus mind that's running 'round.
Butterflies and zebras, fairy tales,
That's all she ever thinks about.

When I'm sad she comes to me
With a thousand smiles she gives to me free.
Said, "It's all right, take anything you want,
Anything you want, anything."

thanks E.

I'm going to.............................

      I think one of the keys to happiness is accepting that I am never going to be perfectly happy.  Life is uncomfortable.  So I might as well get busy loving the people around me.  I'm going to stop trying to decide whether they are the "right people" for me and just take deep breaths and love my neighbors.  I'm going to take care of my friends.  I'm going to find peace in the 'burbs.  I'm going to quit chasing happiness long enough to notice it smiling right at me.

-Glennon Doyle Melton,  Carry On, Warrior:  The Power of Embracing Your Messy, Beautiful Life

illimitable........................................

 “My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.”
-Albert Einstein

On many levels....................................

via

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

On the TV..........................................................The Big Valley

the invisible hand of social influence..............

“Problems worthy of attacks, prove their worth by hitting back” 
-Adam Smith

cartoon via

A field of beauty...........................

Let's eat out.....................................

back story, and more fun charts, here.

Friend it's good to see you.....................

Alan Jackson.......................................Midnight in Montgomery



'Cause it's midnight in Montgomery, just hear that whippoorwill
See the stars light up the purple sky, feel that lonesome chill
'Cause when the wind is right, you'll hear his songs, smell whiskey in the air
Midnight in Montgomery, he's always singing there

Full lyrics here                  thanks E.

Staying the course................................

I do not know Zen.  I just know gratitude.  I am grateful for the beauty in the midst of suffering.  I am grateful for the treasure hunt through the minefield of life.  Dangerous or not, I don't want out of the minefield.  Because truth, and beauty, and God are there.

-Glennon  Doyle Melton,  Carry On, Warrior:  The Power Of Embracing Your Messy, Beautiful Life

On statistics versus the evidence of our eyes.......

"But the technological advances of the past decade seem to have increased the efficiency of households, rather than the efficiency of businesses, to an unusual extent. An e-reader in the pocket replaces a roomful of books, and all the world’s music is streamed to my computer. We look at aggregate statistics and worry about the slowdown in growth and productivity. But the evidence of our eyes seems to tell a different story."
-John Kay

This is how we elected...........................

................................Class Presidents in Junior High School.

"Trump, however, is an entertaining sham, and some voters think that if the establishment is going to screw you no matter what you do, you might as well vote for the funny one."
-Walter Russell Mead

Two more excerpts  from the same blog post:

"For voters who’ve come to believe that both parties are owned and operated by the kind of people who pay Hillary Clinton hundreds of thousands of dollars to make platitudinous speeches, who believe that the system is rigged and will never be reformed, that the candidates offering “real solutions to real problems” are fooling either themselves or, more probably, you, Trump at least offers the satisfaction of making the other rat bastards and pompous PC elites squirm. He laughs at them and makes them look small; he defies their hatred and revels in their pursed-lip disapproval. By incurring the hatred of the chattering classes, he seems to some voters to be signaling both that he hates the empty showmanship of the capital as much as they do and that, by making himself the enemy of the self-determined arbiters of the rules of the political game, he is throwing himself on the support of the American people."

"You can also tell a pollster that you plan to vote for Trump simply, as George Wallace used to put it back in 1968, to “send them a message.” Trump offers average Americans the chance to pull the Establishment’s chain, and then watch the wonks and the pundits jerk and squeal. This is a lot of fun for the tens of millions of people out there who think the whole political class consists of high-minded incompetents and unprincipled parasites."

Makes perfect sense to me...........................

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

On Broadway.........................................The Odd Couple opens

Art Carney as Felix Ungar and  Walter Matthau as Oscar Madison

Oh noes......................................

"the energy being produced by stars and other objects is about half what it was two billion years ago." - as extracted from here

The comforting conclusion to the "Massive Study Confirms Our Universe Is Slowly Dying" post:
"after all, no one really knows what happens next."

o noes via

Aiming at Eternity.......................

St. Paul's Cathedral during the London blitz

"Architecture has its political Use; publick Buildings being the Ornament of a Country; it establishes a Nation, draws People and Commerce; makes the People love their native Country, which Passion is the Original of all great Actions in a Common-wealth…. Architecture aims at Eternity."
-Sir Christopher Wren


 Photo: AP Photo/Daily Mail, Herbert Mason

Feel the angel of the present.........................

Van Morrison.....................................Dweller On The Threshold




I have seen without perceiving
I have been another man
Let me pierce the realm of glamour
So I know just what I am

I'm a dweller on the threshold
And I'm waiting at the door
And I'm standing in the darkness
I don't want to wait no more

Feel the angel of the present
In the mighty crystal fire
Lift me up consume my darkness
Let me travel even higher

I'm a dweller on the threshold
As I cross the burning ground
Let me go down to the water
Watch the great illusion drown

rest of the lyrics here

Thanks E.

Don't be afraid..................................

“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid."
-Frederick Buechner

Waiting..................................

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” 
-Carl Sagan

You want security....................................?

“It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity” 
-Dag Hammarskjöld