Design West is working on a proposed School for the Arts. The client (Ruthanne Christensen) would like the poem DESIDERATA mounted on a high wall in the main entry. I did a google search and found a great deal of interesting controversy regarding the origin of the poem. But Max Ehrmann, a poet and lawyer from Terre Haute, Indiana (1872-1945) was the author. He obtained a federal copyright in 1927. It is beautiful language... Ehrmann's "humble gift... a bit of chaste prose." It is wonderful advice for young and old alike... especially in these uncertain times.
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Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
Retrieved from "http://wikilivres.info/wiki/Desiderata"
Check also "The Confused History of Desiderata" at http://www.fleurdelis.com/desiderata.htm
Monday, March 23, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
A Far Country by Allen Powell
Missy and Andy gave me this book. I finished reading it during airline travel and airport waiting on our trip to Pittsburgh. It is "a short history of the Northern Territory" in Australia. It was a great read, but being a history book...a little more info than one needs.
The NT has been Federal Government property since 1911. The city of Darwin was settled by intrepid pioneers primarily due to fear that some foreign power would claim it. The state of South Australia claimed it first, then gradually tried to get out of the deal. The Federal Government's attempts to govern are a classic collection of mistakes.
Private enterprise in the form of huge foreign companies, which had the capital to outlast unpredictable weather, was encouraged. One English company called Vesty's bought up cattle stations and built a huge meat packing plant in Darwin. They created markets for NT beef in Indonesia...and then they were gone. Why? They would never say and no-one has ever been able to access their records. But the historians speculate that the company simply could not trust government. The federal governments changed every four years...agreements were made...agreements were broken. That unpredictability on top of an unpredictable climate caused Vesty's and other major investors to up and leave.
One classic episode in the history of the NT was the government take-over of Darwin Hotels (pubs). Who would believe it? Who would stand for it? But the government quickly lost money and returned the pubs to private ownership. There is a lesson here. Anyone who can't make money on a pub, among some of the greatest beer drinkers in the world...in a place like Darwin that would drive anyone to drink...is obviously incapable of running anything efficiently.
Why would clear thinking people trust government to run anything efficiently? But the same people who can't run a pub in Australia efficiently, are attempting to run health care, airlines, aboriginal affairs...you name it.
And in the USA people chose a President and a Congress who are hell-bent to give us government run National Health Care...and government run banks. Heaven help us!
The NT has been Federal Government property since 1911. The city of Darwin was settled by intrepid pioneers primarily due to fear that some foreign power would claim it. The state of South Australia claimed it first, then gradually tried to get out of the deal. The Federal Government's attempts to govern are a classic collection of mistakes.
Private enterprise in the form of huge foreign companies, which had the capital to outlast unpredictable weather, was encouraged. One English company called Vesty's bought up cattle stations and built a huge meat packing plant in Darwin. They created markets for NT beef in Indonesia...and then they were gone. Why? They would never say and no-one has ever been able to access their records. But the historians speculate that the company simply could not trust government. The federal governments changed every four years...agreements were made...agreements were broken. That unpredictability on top of an unpredictable climate caused Vesty's and other major investors to up and leave.
One classic episode in the history of the NT was the government take-over of Darwin Hotels (pubs). Who would believe it? Who would stand for it? But the government quickly lost money and returned the pubs to private ownership. There is a lesson here. Anyone who can't make money on a pub, among some of the greatest beer drinkers in the world...in a place like Darwin that would drive anyone to drink...is obviously incapable of running anything efficiently.
Why would clear thinking people trust government to run anything efficiently? But the same people who can't run a pub in Australia efficiently, are attempting to run health care, airlines, aboriginal affairs...you name it.
And in the USA people chose a President and a Congress who are hell-bent to give us government run National Health Care...and government run banks. Heaven help us!
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