Want Some Good Advice?

And here are two more: avoid people who constantly disturb your peace of mind, and stop trying to fix people who don't want to be fixed.

Throw Yourself a Grappling Hook

Fix a Broken Day

Why Superheroes? Here's Why

Why superheroes? Why have fictional characters who cannot possibly exist in real life?

It always amazes me that some people seem to think that good works can somehow magically appear in a corrupt world without idealism and dreams of courage and daring.

In fact, superheroes are metaphors about the soaring human spirit, born of necessity in times of powerlessness and despair like the Great Depression. Their function is the same as the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movies from that era — to enable the downtrodden to fantasize about defying gravity in fancy duds.

Our “heroes” now slaughter lots of people, because an evil society tells itself evil stories.

Superhero comics are born with an inherent optimism — colorfully costumed exuberant rescue fantasies. It’s no surprise that they’d be “out of step” in an era where nihilism, greed and even torture are celebrated.

Superheroes represent enduring moral values required by the human condition, among them courage, honesty, decency, wisdom and compassion. Those don’t “evolve.” They merely become clarified or confused, depending on whether our society advances or erodes.

Superheroes are those who, when something horrible is about to happen, step in to stop it. They transform themselves, sacrificing their ordinariness. They are the people Mr. Rogers called “the helpers,” writ large.

“If one takes away the violence of superheroes and strips them of the modern perception of their obsessive vigilantism and unwavering punishment of evildoers, what’s left?” asked wrote Alex S. Romagnoli and Gian S. Pagnucci in Enter the Superheroes: American Values, Culture and the Canon of Superhero Literature. “What’s left is a character that represents the best qualities of humanity: altruism, self-sacrifice, perseverance and responsibility. Superheroes fight because they have to, but their messages still resound without the violence and without the hard-edged personas.”

Superheroes are mysterious figures who suddenly appear to inspire humanity, then vanish until they are needed again.

What are you waiting for? Shine the signal.

The Simple Things

"The real drawback to the simple life is that it is not simple. If you are living it, you positively can do nothing else. There is not time."

— Katharine Elizabeth Fullerton Gerould

Not Your Job

One of My Favorite Poems

No Regret, No Anxiety

"People don't realize that now is all there ever is; there is no past or future except as memory or anticipation in your mind."

— Eckhart Tolle

Things Big and Little

"Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is."

— Thomas Szasz

Calm Your Space

Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.

— Saint Francis de Sales

Whom to Please

"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting."

—e. e. cummings

Clear the Mind

 

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.’

— Thomas Jefferson

Where and When Are We?

In the 21st century, luxury is the ability to think clearly, sleep deeply, move slowly and live quietly in a world designed to prevent all four of those things.

Now that I’m in my 70s, it occurs to me that my actual job, for the rest of my life, is to have some peace of mind and enjoy myself. 

I mean to work at that with some determination, whatever the vicissitudes that come my way.

What You're Worth

 

Love of Life

--

My friend Jim Hampton remarked, "I love Mondrian. It's such a great quote and an important practice. It makes life into being like a good meal. You don't eat the entire plate's contents in one gulp. You savor each little bite and make it last."

The Example by W.H. Davies

Song of the Thrush

What We Enjoy

 

happiness is not:

perfection, control or determined

by external events and people.

happiness is:

a product of your perception and

inner balance. When you define your

own energy, you bring your harmony

with you wherever you go.

 — yung pueblo

Reverie Alone Will Do

The Answer from the Sea

I go down to the shore in the morning

and depending on the hour the waves

are rolling in or moving out,

and I say, oh, I am miserable,

what shall—

what should I do? And the sea says

in its lovely voice:

“Excuse me, I have work to do.”

― Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings: Poems