Primitive & Enlightened

The enlightened conserve
The primitive waste
The rest suffer.
12.31.13

Greatness & Leaders

If we can realize
That history allows
Only one great leader
Every few hundred years
We would cease expecting
Greatness from our leaders.
12.30.13

Good & Repayment

Because we cannot repay
All the people who have been good to us
We should instead bestow the good we owe
On the many others who owe us nothing
In order to keep the spirit of goodwill
Afloat throughout the world.
12.29.13

Journeys & Excitement

Journeys
Which begin with excitement and end in fatigue,
Usually change our lives to the better;
But journeys, which begin with fatigue
Seldom end in excitement and often worsen our lives.
12.28.13

Gifts & Thanks

When we give gifts
That we feel we need to give
But which the receiver does not need
We are merely saying thank you
With perfunctory articles
When we could have thanked better
With a few heart-warming words.
12.27.13

Chlichés & Nothing

When we have nothing to say
But feel that we need to say something
We end up using clichés, which say nothing.
12.26.13

Reach & Worth

Our social instincts
Feed a sense of empowerment
When we project ourselves onto others;
Deriving our sense of worth
From the number of people we can reach
Has fueled the internet and made it indispensable.
12.25.13

Time & Waste

Whenever people or establishments
Consistently waste our time
We learn to avoid them;
To guard against squandering others’ time
Is the highest order of considerate politeness.
12.24.13

Ethics & Enlightenment

Living an ethical life
Entails accepting, understanding
And feeling bonded to all of humanity;
Education empowers and may lead to hubris;
Ignorance disempowers and may lead to poverty;
But ethics always leads to enlightenment and humility.
12.23.13

Smiles & Losses

We only lose or are defeated
When we lose our cheerfulness;
As long as we can remain cheerful
Our losses can be turned into gains
And our defeats, into victories;
Nothing can defeat a smile.
12.22.13

Remembered & Forgotten

What is recorded is remembered
But, what is not recorded is forgotten;
History has sharp eyes and deaf ears.
12.21.13

Buying & Hoarding

We buy what we don’t need
And hoard what we don’t need
Until we become owned
By what we don’t need;
The fear of need
Is a major motivator
Of acquisition.
12.20.13

Gains & Losses

Behind every gain
There are unforeseen losses
And behind every loss
There are unforeseen gains;
Rather than celebrate or grieve
It is wiser to wait and see.
12.19.13

Humanity & Evidence

Humanity
Does not live by evidence
Because evidence requires open-minded effort;
Rather, it lives by what it hears and reads
And by what it was made to believe.
12.18.13

Honoree & Honored

Honor can only be earned;
Honoring someone is a euphemism
For the gratitude that is felt by the many
Whom the honoree has honored with his work.
12.17.13

Fatigue & Causes

Fatigue
Which has four main causes
Disease, struggle, anguish, and age;
Is the worst enemy of creativity and productivity.
12.16.13

Brains & Addictions

Addictions
Permanently groove our brains
Rendering them impervious to reasoning;
Once our brains are addiction-grooved
We spin our intelligence justifying
Instead of resisting.
12.15.13

Greatness & Recognition

Recognizing personal greatness
Is difficult when the great are close;
It takes time and distance to appreciate
Those great people among us.
12.14.12

Charging & Giving

Charging for everything one does
Is offensive, begets ill will
And is bad for business;
Charging fairly and giving freely
Compounds profits by promoting goodwill.
12.13.13

Rest & Perfection

Taking long breaks
Is essential for perfecting work;
Working incessantly, racing against time
Without any meaningful rests
Assures flawed results.
12.12.13

Light & Faith

It would take faith to find
The inevitably present little good
In everything and everyone we dislike;
Finding the crack, which allows in the sun
Will light the way towards peaceful mediation.
12.11.13

Danger & Ignorance

The most dangerous thing in the world
Is not nuclear war, famine, natural disasters
Epidemics, fanaticism, dictatorships, or governments;
The most dangerous thing is and has always been
Opinionated ignorance.
12.10.13

Trap & Mind

The most dangerous trap
That we repeatedly fall into
Is making up our minds
Without sufficient study.
12.09.13

Living & Dying

Two things are most difficult to teach
How to live well and how to die well.
12.08.13

Power & Arteries

When a great power
Develops angina pectoris
Because of clogged arteries
A bypass will not be curative;
It will require preventive cleansing
To ensure its survival and prosperity.
12.07.13

Law & Ethics

What is legal is not always ethical
And what is ethical is not always legal;
Crooks have always used the law
For unethical purposes;
One can hide from ethics behind the law
But no one can hide from ethics behind ethics.
12.06.13

Changing & MInds

Changing our minds
With changing times
Is healthy plasticity;
Refusing to change
Is unhealthy loyalty.
12.05.13

Ethics & Outocme

Serving where needed
Especially when one knows
One can only make a small difference
Is the ultimate triumph of ethics over outcome.
11.04.13

Learning & Praise

We learn a lot more from criticism
Than we learn from praise
A lot more from failure
Than from success
And a lot more from hindsight
Than from impressions and predictions.
12.03.13

Easy & Hard

Talking is easy, listening is hard
Believing is easy, thinking is hard
Reaction is easy, composure is hard
Sex is easy, love is hard
Death is easy, life is hard.
12.02.13 

Better & Worse

Whenever we try to look
Better that we truly are
We always end up looking
Worse than we truly are.
12.01.13