Creativity
“Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the ‘creative bug’ is just a wee voice telling you, ‘I’d like my crayons back, please.” ― Hugh MacLeod
What are you going to create this week?
Greet The Sunrise
Mankind Is Best When
“Mankind is at its best when it is most free. This will be clear if we grasp the principle of liberty. We must recall that the basic principle is freedom of choice, which saying many have on their lips, but few in their minds.”
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“Dante Alighieri, probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to simply as Dante, was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa and later christened Divina by Giovanni Boccaccio, is widely considered one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language. Dante is known for establishing the use of the vernacular in literature at a time when most poetry was written in Latin, which was accessible only to the most educated readers. His De vulgari eloquentia was one of the first scholarly defenses of the vernacular. His use of the Tuscan dialect for works such as The New Life and Divine Comedy helped establish the modern-day standardized Italian language. His work set a precedent that important Italian writers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio would later follow. Dante was instrumental in establishing the literature of Italy.”
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Born: c. 1265, Florence, Republic of Florence
Died: September 14, 1321, (aged c. 56), Ravenna, Papal States
Resting place: Tomb of Dante
Occupation: Statesman, poet, language theorist, political theorist
Language: Italian, Tuscan, Latin
Nationality: Florentine
Period: Late Middle Ages
Literary movement: Dolce Stil Novo
Notable works: Divine Comedy
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Dante Alighieri (2009). “On World-Government Or de Monarchia”, Wildside Press LLC
Parenting Done Right
I just witnessed a boy, maybe about 6 or 7, accidentally spill a slushee everywhere in Target. I didn’t get a photo but I’m including one of my son and I.
I’m talking blue and red goop all over the floor, the table, everywhere. The boy looked up at who I assume was his father, and immediately apologized.
Instead of getting angry, his father just said “Hey, it happens. Let’s go get napkins and I can show you how to clean it up.”
Then they calmly went to get napkins and then he helped him clean the entire mess. Then, as they were throwing the napkins away, the father said to his son, “You’re going to be a human being for a long time, and you have such a smart brain that it’s important you learn how to be more aware of what you’re doing. So next time just be sure to pay more attention to your surroundings so accidents like this don’t happen. Accidents like these can be prevented, but it’s still okay if they happen. As long as you take responsibility for your mistakes, the clean up is a breeze. I know big messes seem overwhelming and you might feel like you can’t do it by yourself, but it’s always okay to ask for help. There is no problem with asking for help when you need it.”
I have no words. That is parenting done right.
Credit: Kalynne Marie
Robot Arm
“No piece of art has ever emotionally affected me the way this robot arm piece has. It’s programmed to try to contain the hydraulic fluid that’s constantly leaking out and required to keep itself running…if too much escapes, it will die so it’s desperately trying to pull it back to continue to fight for another day. Saddest part is they gave the robot the ability to do these ‘happy dances’ to spectators.
“When the project was first launched it danced around spending most of its time interacting with the crowd since it could quickly pull back the small spillage. Many years later… (as you see it now in the video) it looks tired and hopeless as there isn’t enough time to dance anymore.. It now only has enough time to try to keep itself alive as the amount of leaked hydraulic fluid became unmanageable as the spill grew over time. Living its last days in a never-ending cycle between sustaining life and simultaneously bleeding out… (Figuratively and literally as its hydraulic fluid was purposefully made to look like it’s actual blood).
“The robot arm finally ran out of hydraulic fluid in 2019, slowly came to a halt and died – And I am now tearing up over a friggin robot arm ?? It was programmed to live out this fate and no matter what it did or how hard it tried, there was no escaping it. Spectators watched as it slowly bled out until the day that it ceased to move forever. Saying that ‘this resonates’ doesn’t even do it justice imo. Created by Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, they named the piece, ‘Can’t Help Myself’. What a masterpiece. What a message.”
“Extended interpretations: the hydraulic fluid in relation to how we kill ourselves both mentally and physically for money just in an attempt to sustain life, how the system is set up for us to fail on purpose to essentially enslave us and to steal the best years of our lives to play the game that the richest people of the world have designed. How this robs us of our happiness, passion and our inner peace. How we are slowly drowning with more responsibilities, with more expected of us, less rewarding pay-offs and less free time to enjoy ourselves with as the years go by. How there’s really no escaping the system and that we were destined at birth to follow a pretty specific path that was already laid out before us. How we can give and give and give and how easily we can be forgotten after we’ve gone.. How we are loved and respected when we are valuable, then one day we aren’t any longer and we become a burden…and how our young, free-caring spirit gets stolen from us as we get churned out of the broken system that we are trapped inside of. Can also be seen to represent the human life cycle and the fact that none of us make it out of this world alive. But also can act as a reminder to allow yourself to heal, rest and love with all of your heart. That the endless chase for ‘more’ isn’t necessary in finding your own inner happiness.”
– James Kricked Parr
Do Not Speak Negatively About Yourself
Bruce was WAY ahead of his time on this one. It was not until decades later that they developed measuring equipment sensitive enough to discover that an elite athletes thoughts affected their performance for several hours.
Your Thoughts
Imagine your mind as an empty space, like a house or an apartment. Imagine your thoughts as residents in this space.
Some thoughts are neat and tidy, clean up after themselves, sweep and vacuum the floor, clean the shower, bath and windows, put out the trash and generally contribute to maintaining the standards and improving things.
Let’s call them the Contributors. (One who contributes; one who gives or pays money or anything else of value to a common stock or fund; one who aids in effecting a common purpose.)
Some thoughts are squatters who pay no rent, do no cleaning and leave their trash everywhere. They reduce the standards in your space and are destructive.
Let’s call them the Detractors. (One who detracts, or takes away or injures the good name of another; one who attempts to disparage or belittle the worth or honor of another.)
The interesting thing is that you choose who lives in that space by the thoughts you allow to occupy your mind. What you do each day determines to whom you are opening the door to allow entry.
If you know what your basic purpose is in life, have a goal and each day make a list of the actions that will take you closer to attaining that goal, if you focus on your goal and concentrate on improving all the skills that will speed the accomplishment of your goal then you are populating your mind with Contributors.
If you watch the news, read the papers, get embroiled in arguments with people who cannot see the truth, get distracted by social media, don’t have a goal, don’t set daily targets to accomplish then you are opening the door to the Detractors. You are allowing them to populate your space and trash it.
Now that you know this, make sure to apply it. Fully. And reap the rewards of a better life!
If You Stay Silent
The Longer You Hold Out
