QUOTATIONS

"One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind" are, perhaps, the most well known of Neil Armstrong's words, but he said many memorable words.  Before a rare joint session of Congress, just weeks after Apollo 11 returned safely to Earth, Armstrong encapsulated a sense of wonder and mystery in a way, I suspect, only one who had been to the moon could do.  

Armstrong lived an exciting life and saw many unique things.  Despite that abundance of experiential riches, he conveys beautiful, a sense of awe before him and all of us.

Buddhist Monk, Pema Chodron brings a wonderful challenge to the podcast.  Her words are easy to say, yet extremely difficult to implement.  She calls on us to be vulnerable, exposed, and blindly faithful that we will survive life's challenges.  

With decades of practice in meditation, deep thought, speaking, and educating, Pema's words are applicable within Buddhist context and to the non-practitioner alike.  Each of us can find challenging and reassuring words in the texts of Buddhism.  This episode is but a brief glimpse into but a few of these words.

In this, our last episode of 2020, her words are especially apropos and profound.

This is my very first attempt at a poetry explication. John James Ingalls penned this very approachable and thought-provoking work that has universal applicability. The caution it lays out and the learning we can take from it are great, if only we are willing to “pick the lock” to discover the treasure within.

Don’t be afraid, it’s just a poem and I am just a man. We’ll figure it out together, have some fun, and learn a little something along the way!

Brianna Wiest is a poet and author and one who, since I arrived at this quote, has brought me countless moments of contemplation and enjoyment.  She has a gift for seeing the world as others do not, cannot, or will not.  That's what today's quote is all about for me.  Changing the way I see the world.  Building the world as I want it to be, not as something from which I must run occasionally, to survive.  

Her words echo and bring value.  For that, I am, as always, grateful.  They make my world a better place.

I talk constantly on this podcast about improving ourselves. I use quotes as a guide for how best to do that. It’s important for all of us, myself included, to remember that perfection is neither achievable, nor a worthwhile pursuit. Hans Finzel advises seeking instead, maturity.

In this episode, we find some breathing room to accept our imperfections, our immaturities, and our faults with grace and recognize that incremental improvement is “perfectly” acceptable, all courtesy of the wise words of Hans!

Author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, Stephen Covey is a world-renowned author and speaker on leadership.  While his "list-style" book is of the type I don't prefer, this is certainly an exception.  Covey cuts through our excuses, laser focuses on the issues, and, most importantly, shows us how to change.  

The choice to be proactive or reactive is ours.  As Covey would say, we must make our own "weather".  In order to do that, we must recognize we are actually outside in the elements and that it is our choice to be there.  We must own where we are and only then can we do something about our situation.

Relationships are complicated.  They always have been and always will be.  They require attention, thoughtfulness, and deliberate effort.  Without these in their proper measure, they can and will wither, falter, and ultimately die.  Anais Nin offers cautionary words in the form of a true-to-life character's plight in her book The Four-Chambered Heart.  Beware these pitfalls.  We ignore them at the peril of our relationships, big and small.

Abraham Lincoln, Kentucky native, Illinois State Senator, Illinois Congressman, 16th President of the United States, statesman and orator-extraordinaire is one of the most oft-quoted individuals in history.  He gave many a memorable speech chock full of quotes for the ages.  In 1864, in the midst of the American Civil War, he faced a daunting reelection bid.  Many offered their advice to assuage those that wanted him gone, including returning the recently freed slaves to their masters after the war as a concession to the persistent and wily southern secessionists.  Lincoln would have none of it, as evidenced by his words that I explore in this episode.  Truly inspiring then.  Truly inspiring now.

John Gottman is a relationship expert, clinical psychologist, and author and he has developed a system whereby he attempts to predict the likelihood of relationship success in the future based on characteristics of that relationship today.  He has also identified what he calls the Four Horsemen, a metaphor for those behaviors which spell the end of a relationship. 

In this episode, I examine a quote of his, taken from Malcolm Gladwell's bestseller Blink.  I also explore the Four Horsemen and tie it all back to how we might improve our relationships and avoid the pitfalls that lead to heartache.

The late Anthony Bourdain was a truly unique character.  He traveled, ate, drank, and conversed around the globe for decades.  He cooked, swore, and documented his way through kitchens everywhere.  All of this, he did with pen and paper and later a camera by his side.  From this, we glean an amazing, raw, and largely unfiltered look at a complex man exploring a complex world. 

His words in this episode stand as a caution and a challenge to be ever-cautious against that slothful, self-indulgent version of ourselves, lest we waste what brief time we have.