Must be Iconic

"Experience is not possible until it is organized iconically; action is not possible unless it is organized iconically. ‘Th brain’s record’ of everything—everything alive—must be iconic. This is the final form of the brain’s record, even though the preliminary form may be computational or programmatic. The final form of cerebral representation must be, or allow, ‘art’—the artful scenery and melody of experience and action."

- Oliver Sacks. The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and Other Clinical Tales. HarperCollins: New York, 1985. pg 148

Today is the Greatest

"Today is the greatest
Day I've ever known
Can't live for tomorrow
Tomorrow's much too long
I burn my eyes out
Before I get out

I wanted more
Than life could ever grant
Bored by the chore
Of saving face

Today is the greatest
Day I have ever known
Cant wait for tomorrow
I might not have that long
Ill tear my heart out
Before I get out

Pink ribbon scars
That never forget
I've tried so hard
To cleanse these regrets
My angel wings
Were bruised and restrained
My belly stings

Today is
Today is
Today is
The greatest day
That I have ever known."

The Smashing Pumpkins "Today" from the album "Siamese Dream"

I love this song. This is my favourite song from one of the greatest albums ever released.

Enjoy!

This Life Has Been a Test

"This life has been a test. If this had been an actual life, you would have received instructions on where to go and what to do."

- Angela on My So-Called Life

We Aren't Clever Enough

"Scarcely any man is clever enough to know all the evil he does."

La Rouchefoucauld Maxims #269

At first glance this quote does not seem like it should be included on Motivational Monday. However, I think that if we can examine our lives in some detail, we can make wiser choices and avoid making ones that harm or hurt others.

Happy Monday Everyone!

It Takes Years to Train a Man

“Women tended to get married before they knew themselves, before they’d made contact with their inviolate selves. Another fact: it takes ages, years and years, to train a man to be even moderately sensitive and to equip him with the expertise to carry out ordinary household tasks. By the time all the information has been dispensed and processed, the trainer is worn out.”

Jane Hamilton. Disobedience. Anchor Books. 2000. pg 75.

Stories Empower

“Stories are the most helpful tools a child has for sorting this all out. Stories have authority. Stories normalize. Stories model behaviour and feeling. Stories model the power to make stories – a power that children must develop in order to manage their own particular individual worlds, the ones seen through their own unique eyes.”

Joseph Gold. Read For Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System. Fitzhenry and Whiteside: Markham, 1990. pg 153

It's Up to the Parents

“There are no role models
It's up to the parents to teach the kids
to understand the music they're hearing
cause hip hop was created for social awareness.”

- DL Incognito “Make a Difference” lyrics from the album Organic Music For A Digital World.

Nothing Stronger

"There's nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.”

Pearl Harbour movie dialogue spoken by Colonel James H. Doolittle.

This film strived to be an accurate account of the Pearl Harbor disaster. The above quotation is not just mere dialogue but the words from this brave Colonel.

Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle and his crew on the USS Hornet April 1942.
From left to right are;
Lt. Henry A. Potter (navigator)
Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle (pilot)
SSG Fred A. Braemer (bombardier)
Lt. Richard E. Cole (co-pilot)
SSG Paul J. Leonard (engineer / gunner)

- picture and additional information from MartimeQuest

Cooperation = Success

"It is through cooperation, rather than conflict, from which your greatest successes be derived."

- Ralph Charell

Happy Monday Everyone!

Two Stories Become One

"Marriage can be a great opportunity to produce such changes. But all too often it is designed to reinforce existing problems. Marriage requires the adaptation of two stories to each other. A rigid story that will not be changed will try to impose itself on the spouse’s story."

- Joseph Gold. Read For Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System. Fitzhenry and Whiteside: Markham, 1990. pg 214

Alive Through Story

"Children prefer concrete images because they have not yet learned the language of abstraction. When they do they will have lost a powerful human response-code for describing and making sense of their world, unless they keep it alive through story."

- Joseph Gold. Read For Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System. Fitzhenry and Whiteside: Markham, 1990. pg 162

Life is a Symphony

"Something I've been wanting to say to you,
(are you sitting down?)
Pretty soon they'll be a day
when I won't be around.
I'm not trying to 'scare' you
or play on your sympathy.
Just want to remind you
that life is a symphony.

Everyday, live it like it's your last one!
Every kiss - kiss it like it's your first love!
If I had one wish: then I would wish
that you would live today like
Everyday - Everyday is you last one."

- Transcribed from the liner notes of Bif Naked's album "Superbeautifulmonster" from the song "Everyday"

Natural Gifts

This quote is about natural gifts.

“A gift is something that is given. You don't own it, the world does.”

Eli Stone fictional character from television series of the same name.

I believe that everyone has a gift that they can give to the world. This quotation illustrates that belief as well.

Help One Another

"We are here to help one another along life's journey."

- William Bennett

Happy Monday Everyone!

Art of Walking

"I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks, who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering; which word is beautifully derived “from idle people who roved around the country, in the middle ages, and asked charity, under pretence of going à la sainte terre” –to the holy land, till the children exclaimed, “There goes a sainte-terrer”, a saunterer-a holy-lander. They who never go to the holy land in their walks, as they pretend, are indeed mere idlers and vagabounds, but they who do go there are saunterers in the good sense, such as I mean. Some, however, would derive the word from sans terre, without land or a home, which, therefore, in the good sense, will mean, having no particular home, but equally at home everywhere. For this is the secret of successful sauntering. He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all, but the Saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant that the meandering river, which is all the while sedulously seeking the shortest course to the sea. But I prefer the first, which indeed is the most probably derivation. For every walk is sort of crusade, preached by some Peter the Hermit in us to go forth and reconquer this holy land from the hands of the Infidels."

- Henry David Thoreau. Walking Part 1 paragraph 2

Nothing is Random

"Identity. I go by the Tootsie theory; that if you concoct a convincing on-line meta-personality on the Net, then that personality really IS you. With so few things around nowadays to loan a person identity, the palette of identities you create for yourself in the vacuum of the Net—your menu of alternative “you’s” – actually IS you. Or an isotope of you. Or a photocopy of you."

- Douglas Coupland Microserfs pg 327

2008 Rap Up

“We got to kill all the drama
Biggest moment ever,
Barack Obama
First black president, please believe it
I'm just happy that my Grammy got a chance to see it
It's time for a change
so don't go trying to turn inauguration into an all-star game
Let's act right and show these kids
We can turn “Yes We Can” into “Yes We Did”
and Bush made it hard, be patient
Let that man go to the Whitehouse and do his job
. . .
The economy, that's a wrap no doubt
the whole world in debt, how you bail that out?

Ya boy Skillz “Welcome to 2009!”

Brilliant, brilliant lyrics. Great job Skillz! I hope people are listening to what you had to say about the new president.

One of the best things about the calendar flipping over to the New Year is waiting to hear the “Rap-Up.”

Skillz has been dropping yearly “Rap-Ups” since 2002. The songs are always witty, well-written takes on the year that has just passed. I look forward to them every year.

If you want to hear all the “Rap-Ups” check this excellent blog, The Essence Returns. http://theessencereturns.blogspot.com/2009/01/skillz-2008-wrap-up-is-here-all-other.html

Art is Good for the Soul

“Being close to art is good for your soul.”

David Gilmour interview on the television program Arts & Minds.

Happy & Healthy By Thought

"Thinking positively and optimistically will not only make you happier, it will make you healthier."

- Michael A. Mitchell, taken from Deb Austin Brown's excellent book "Growing Character."

Happy Monday Everyone. Here's to 2009! All the best!