How Do You Gauge How Happy You Are?

Image via Wikipedia

From Denny: Apologies to everyone who was looking for their quote today. We had serious thunderstorms move through yesterday and we lost power. It was like the heavens opened up and decided it was time for a deluge!

Anyway, today's quote was from a U.S. President. We hear a lot of quotes and sometimes don't realize they were said originally by American Presidents. Even a culture often grows up over time around the thought in that quote, so it is with this one.

Generations later we are now addressing how to work our attitudes to improve our lives. Well, Abraham Lincoln, who knew an awful lot of terrible adversity, certainly understood what it took to build and maintain a positive attitude.

He lost 69 elections and he lost all his children over a span of time. He was also President during the trying times of America's only Civil War and was ill with a slow disease. His wife went into a terrible depression upon the loss of their youngest son from illness.

Lincoln was a strong-willed kind-hearted man who even brought his political enemies into his administration in the effort to govern the country in a bi-partisan manner. Lincoln is most famous for several of his inspiring speeches and deciding to dare to go against the tide of convention and free America's slaves. He was all about doing the best job possible for the sake of ALL the American people.

Quote

"People are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be." - President Abraham Lincoln



quotes, politics, positive attitude, presidential quotes, American Civil War, United States, History, Civil War, President, List of Presidents of the United States

What Does a Weed Have to Do With Questioning What You Think You Know?

Kudzu weeds smothering 100 foot trees and taking over a drainage ditch by railroad tracks in downtown Atlanta on Piedmont Road - Image via Wikipedia

From Denny: Emerson lived in the early 19th century. He was a great writer from whom today we pull a lot of equally great quotes. Emerson was also a minister, not a finger-pointer of faults and tongue-wagging fear-mongerer, but a man who sought to teach people to think clearly and critically. That's why his words are still so valuable 180 years later! Some concepts are eternal, and, as they say on the web, evergreen. :)

Emerson was one deep thinker and constantly pulled metaphors for our lives from his surroundings of Nature. How many times when you go to mow your beautiful perfect lawn have you discovered an ugly weed sticking up and out of character for "the green neighborhood"?

Emerson talks about weeds in this quote as having worth. What? What weeds have worth? Well, I can think of one example. Back in the 1930's kudzu was brought from China to America to feed cattle during the Great Depression. You see, kudzu can grow during the summer up to one or more feet a day, yes, a DAY! It is one fast-growing healthy ancient vine.

That was great back in the 1930's but eventually those family farms were abandoned or sold and no longer farmed. Yes, you guessed it, the kudzu kept growing and growing and growing! When I lived in Atlanta you would see it on abandoned city lots downtown, growing over street lights and creeping and running along high electrical lines and back down again on the telephone poles and over to a large tree to smother that too. Unbelievable. So, now what?

Turns out America became aware of a new herbicide back in the 1980's, 50 years later after the kudzu invasion, called Roundup. Well, I got news for you, it works for the short term but the kudzu wins anyway! OK, again, "So, now what?"

By the 1990's it was learned that the Japanese prize kudzu for its roots. What do they do with it? They harvest the roots and make their version of a food thickener like our own cornstarch. Pretty cool, huh?! :)

So, here you thought kudzu was useless as just some weed when it has beneficial food value! Bet you will never look at a weed the same again! :) Even Emerson soon realized the conventional thought about weeds is not always accurate - and to make sure you question everything you think you know.

Quote

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not been discovered." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanks for visiting this Monday! Have a great work week!


America quotes, gardening, life, minister, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Culture, weeds, 19th century, Great Depression, World Literature, Arts, China, Literature, Atlanta

How Do You Test a Person's Character the Most? Adversity? No.

1861 Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln Image via Wikipedia

From Denny: Truer words could never have been spoken by President Abraham Lincoln! They apply to politics, religion, employers and parenting. It is easy to abuse your power over someone - "because you can." After all, who is going to stop you?

That's why it is so very important to develop true personal discipline in the cultivating of emotional intelligence to protect yourself from becoming an abuser so despised by others - and God. Who wants negative Karma slapping you in the face when you are at your most weak or vulnerable? No one who is sane asks for that intentionally.

How do you cultivate emotional intelligence? Start with cultivating analytical and then critical thinking. Critical thinking will pave the way for you to no longer be deceived by others who practice the art of misdirection, illusion and clever lying arguments. You will recognize you are being manipulated immediately.

Critical thinking is also useful in understanding the motivations of others in a situation, especially an explosive one like politics or family relationships. Really, politics is just an extension of a national family squabbling over tiny specks of truth rather than the big picture focus of what's right and good for the majority of the governed. People waste time getting caught up in contentiousness and then the whole house falls down around their ears. Reminds me of that movie "The War of the Roses," a divorcing couple that were savagely sadistic and destructive toward one another to the point of literally killing each other. What a waste of time and passion that could have been put to more constructive use for the betterment of others rather than the self-absorbed selfishness aimed at the need to win at all costs.

President Lincoln was a Republican President yet today would be recognized as a moderate or even as a Democrat. He was not a screamer partisan who hated all as the Republican Party has become in the past 25 years. He brought into his administration men from many political persuasions and parties of his time, including his political enemies. He made the effort to be bi-partisan. Whether the others chose to do right by the country was up to them.

Once in the White House, Lincoln quickly recognized he had tremendous power to do whatever he willed and desired not to abuse that power over the country. Before getting elected to the White House he lost 70 elections, surely a test of adversity. In this quote, Lincoln talks about adversity as he knew it well. He also knew great power. The politicians and political rhetoric folks could take a lesson from this thought-provoking President of high emotional intelligence and strong moral character.

Quote

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." - President Abraham Lincoln


Abraham Lincoln, United States, Society and Culture, Politics, Emotional intelligence, Presidents, History, Social Studies, Kids and Teens, presidential quotes, quotes

Fourth of July Quotes: Serious and Funny

Photo by Morgan Frederick @ flickr

From Denny: I just love the fireworks on this day. I also like to remember all the soldiers over the centuries who lost their lives preserving our freedom, whether they voted Democrat, Republican or not at all.

Courage is always to be respected and admired. We may not agree on whether there should be a war at all, how to conduct a war once started or how to end it. What we can agree on is to respect those who were sent to fight as our first line of defense. They paid a hefty price for the rest of their lives for those wars were always with them.

Here are some very serious awesome quotes and a few light-hearted ones as well to give you pause and a grin on this solemn national holiday.

Serious Quotes

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.” – President John F. Kennedy

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." ~ Thomas Paine

"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself." ~ Thomas Paine

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." ~ Elmer Davis

"Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have." ~ Harry Emerson Fosdick

"Let freedom never perish in your hands." ~ Joseph Addison

Image by photobunny via Flickr

"Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed - else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die." ~ President Dwight D. Eisenhower

"In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved." ~ President Franklin D. Roosevelt

"May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country!" ~ Daniel Webster

"We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls." ~ Robert J. McCracken

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." ~ Abraham Lincoln

"If our country is worth dying for in time of war let us resolve that it is truly worth living for in time of peace." ~ Hamilton Fish

"I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery." ~ Author Unknown

"Without freedom, no one really has a name." ~ Milton Acorda

"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." ~ Benjamin Franklin

Funny Quotes

The United States is the only country with a known birthday. ~ James G. Blaine

“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.” ~ Erma Bombeck

"There, I guess King George will be able to read that." -
John Hancock, after signing the Declaration of Independence with a huge signature well flourished to stand out from the crowd!

Stay safe this holiday; Happy Fourth of July! Thanks for visiting!