THE DEVELOPMENT SET:
Excuse me friends, I must catch my jet,
I'm off to join the Development Set.
My bags are packed and I've had all my shots
I have travellers cheques, and pills for the trots.
The Development Set is bright and noble
Our thoughts are deep and our vision global.
Although we move with the better classes
Our thoughts are always with the masses.
In Sheraton hotels in scattered nations
We damn the multinational corporations.
Injustice seems easy to protest
In such seething hotbeds of social rest.
We discuss malnutrition over our steaks
And plan hunger talks during coffee breaks.
Whether Asian floods or African drought
We face each issue with an open mouth.
We bring in consultants whose circumlocution
Raises difficulties for every solution.
Thus guaranteeing continued eating
By showing the need for another meeting.
The landguage of the Development Set
Stretches the English alphabet.
We use swell words like "epigenetic"
"micro", "macro" and "logarithmetic."
It pleasures us to be esoteric
It's so intellectually atmospheric!
Although establishments may be unmoved
Our vocabularies are much improved.
When the talks get deep and you're feeling dumb
You can keep your shame to a minimum.
To show that you too, are intelligent
Smugly ask, "But is it really development?"
Or say, "That's fine in practice, but don't you see
It doesn't work out in theory?"
A few may find this incomprehensible
But most will admire you as deep and sensible.
Development Set homes are extremely chic
Full of carvings, curios and draped with batik.
Eye-level photographs subtly assure
That your host is at home with the great and the poor.
Enough with these verses, on with the Mission!
Our task is as broad as the human condition!
Just pray, "God, may the biblical promise come true:
The poor ye shall always have with you."
Margaret Mead: Many women, particularly young women, have claimed the right to use the most explicit sex terms, including extremely vulgar ones, in public as well ad private. But it is men, far more than women, who have been liberated by this change. For now that women use these terms, men no longer need to watch their own language in the presence of women. But is this a gain for women?
Carlos Rios (former minister of Interior of Uruguay):
Democracy is a bit like that old story of a boy & his grandfather walking
home with their burro on a hot afternoon. The granfather rides until a
passer-by scolds him for abusing the child. Then the child rides until
somebody complains he is not showing respect for his grandfather. So they
both ride, until another busybody asks how they could be so cruel to the
burro. Somehow they get home. Democracy never pleases everybody. But nobody
has yet come up with a better recipe for governing free men.
Start by doing what's necessary, then what's possible and suddenly you're doing the impossible.
May you have warmth in your igloo, oil in your lamp,and peace in your heart. -- Eskimo proverb.
Unhappiness is the ultimate form of self-indulgence.
Life is like riding a bicycle. You don't fall off unless you stop pedalling.
When nobody around you seems to measure up, it's time to check your yardstick.
Sports is life with the volume up. The friendships in sports are fused more tightly than in most other places.The laughter is louder, the jokes funnier,the pain sharper, the nights later, the lows lower. Atheletics teach us that life, although unpredictable, is something we can deal with. A baseball team nods when it wins and shrugs when it loses and wakes up to a new and different game each day.
Chaperons, even in their days of glory, were almost never able to enforce morality; what they did was to force immorality to be discreet. This is no small contribution. When a society abandons its ideals just because most people can't live up to them, behaviour gets very ugly indeed.
F.W.Faber: Remember the opportunity for great deeds may never come, but the opportuny for good deeds is renewed day by day. The thing for us to long for is the goodness, not the glory.
A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.
A friend is someone you can do nothing with, and enjoy it.
Buddhism, as a philosophy, can only be understood by someone who has experienced pain and has learned to know himself.
If you suffer, and experienced pain, You're lucky -- you finally
understand the meaning of the guiding principles. And then, if
anything happens to you, you stay on track & everything is all
right. I know, I live by those same guiding principles, and they
have helped me get through my obstacles in life.
MOTHER'S DAY
Mummies should be glorified by everyone on earth,
'cause none of us would be here,
if they hadn't given us birth.
And yet, a mother should salute a child,
each time they see one.
Because, if it were not for them --
She wouldn't even be one.
********
Yesterday is a cancelled cheque; Tomorrow is a promissory note; Today is the only cash you have - so spend it wisely.
In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. --Albert Camus
History may not repeat itself, but it sure as heck rhymes a lot. --Unknown
I must study politics and war, that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, and naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain. --John Adams
If you do not understand the past, you cannot expect to fully comprehend the future. --Brian Henderson
There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small candle. --Robert Alden
Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time. --Rabbinical saying
Three Spaniards, four opinions. --Spanish proverb
"It is wondrous out here. There are treasures to satiate
desires both subtle and gross, but it is a dangerous place,
and not for the timid."
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What may be done at any time will be done at no time. --Scottish proverb
I want to go ahead of Father Time with a scythe of my own. --H. G. Wells
Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both. --Tryon Edwards
If the family skeleton must remain, make it dance. --Unknown
One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak. --G. K. Chesterton
If a thing is absolutely true, how can it not also be a lie? An absolute must contain its opposite. --Charlotte Painter
Richard Needham: Strong people make as many ghastly mistakes as weak people. The difference is that strong people admit them, laugh at them, learn from them. That is how they became strong.
Some folks make you feel at home, others make you wish you were.
He who is afraid to ask is ashamed of learning.
The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait until the other is ready.
In the battle of sexes, neither man nor woman can be the enemy, for we are inextricably linked, indeed bound in every cell by such a very tight & ancient cord that when we strike the other we must also cut the self.
When a simpleton abused him, Buddha listened in silence; but when
the man had finished, Buddha asked him, "Son, if a man declined to accept
a present made to him, to whom would it belong?"
The man answered, "To him who offered it."
"My son," said Buddha, "I decline to accept your abuse, & request
you to keep it for yourself."
The best cure for hypochondria is to forget about your own body & get interested in someone else's.
Self-restraint is the finest of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper." -- John Ruskin
If you sometimes get discouraged,
consider this fellow:
He dropped out of grade school.
Ran a country store.
Went broke.
Took 15 years to pay off his bills.
Took a wife.
Unhappy marriage.
Ran for House.
Lost twice.
Ran for Senate.
Lost twice.
Delivered speech that became a classic.
Audience indifferent.
Attacked daily by the press and despised by half the country.
Despite all this, imagine how many people all over the world have been
inspired by this awkward, rumpled, brooding man who signed his name
simply.
A Lincoln.
a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
a fool and his money are soon parted.
a good beginning makes a good ending.
a jack of all trades is master of none.
a miss is as good as a mile.
a person is known by the company he keeps.
a stitch in time saves nine.
actions speak louder than words.
all that glitters is not gold.
all's well that ends well.
ask and you shall receive.
ask no questions and hear no lies.
birds of a feather flock together.
don't change horses in midstream.
don't cross the bridge till you come to it.
doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom.
every man has a price.
faith will move mountains.
familiarity breeds contempt.
forewarned is forearmed.
good fences make good neighbors.
half a loaf is better than none.
he who lives by the sword shall die by the sword.
history repeats itself.
if the shoe fits, wear it.
if you cannot stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
it's an ill wind that blows no good.
it's not over till it's over.
it's the early bird that gets the worm.
it's the empty can that makes the most noise.
it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.
absence makes the heart grow fonder.
make hay while the sun shines.
many hands make light work.
nature abhors a vacuum.
never judge a book by its cover.
never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
opposites attract.
out of sight, out of mind.
people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
a rolling stone gathers no moss.
still waters run deep.
the more things change, the more they stay the same.
the pen is mightier than sword.
too many cooks spoil the broth.
truth is stranger than fiction.
two heads are better than one.
variety is the spice of life.
waste not, want not.
what will be, will be.
you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
you can't tell a book by its cover.
you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.
don't burn your bridges behind you.
If you want to understand a nation, look at it's dances and listen to it's folk songs - don't pay any attention to it's politicians.
Self respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.
The greatest prayer is patience. --- Buddha
Everyone is a bore to someone. That is unimportant. The thing to avoid is
being a bore to oneself.
Live and learn, or you won't live long!
Let's not be too critical of the tobacco industry. After all, it has found a cure for old age.
Tell me not what life has done to you,
Tell me instead what you have done with life.
My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition. --- Indira Gandhi
``I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities.'' ---Dr. Seuss
``How did it get so late so soon?
Its night before it's afternoon.
December is here before it's June.
My goodness how the time has flewn.
How did it get so late so soon?'' --- Dr. Seuss
When you're feeling low, remember this: Every morning the sun rises, every spring the flowers bloom, every night the Big Dipper is just where it's supposed to be, most parents love their children, 98 percent of our youngsters aren't delinquents . . . and there's still far more love than hate in the world, in spite of the television and newspaper headlines.
Have a Thrilling day!
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change;
the realist adjusts the sails.
Life isn't about keeping score.
It's not about how many friends you have
Or how accepted you are.
Not about if you have plans this weekend or if you're alone.
It isn't about who you're dating, who you used to date, how many people
you've dated, or if you haven't been with anyone at all.
It isn't about who you have kissed.
It's not about sex.
It isn't about who your family is or how much money they have
Or what kind of car you drive,
Or where you are sent to school.
It's not about how beautiful or ugly you are.
Or what clothes you wear, what shoes you have on, or what kind of music
you listen to.
It's not about if your hair is blonde, red, black, or brown
Or if your skin is too light or too dark.
Not about what grades you get, how smart you are, how smart everybody
else thinks you are, or how smart standardized tests say you are.
It's not about what clubs you're in or how good you are at "your"
sport.
It's not about representing your whole being on a piece of paper and
seeing who will "accept the written you."
LIFE JUST ISN'T.
But, life is about who you love and who you hurt.
It's about who you make happy or unhappy purposefully.
It's about keeping or betraying trust.
It's about friendship, used as a sanctity or a weapon.
It's about what you say and mean, maybe hurtful, maybe heartening.
About starting rumors and contributing to petty gossip.
It's about what judgments you pass and why. And who your judgments are
spread to.
It's about who you've ignored with full control and intention.
It's about jealousy, fear, ignorance, and revenge.
It's about carrying inner hate and love, letting it grow, and spreading
it.
But most of all, it's about using your life to touch or poison other
people's hearts in such a way that could have never occurred alone.
Only you choose the way those hearts are affected, and those choices are
what life's all about. Make the right choices and life will be a blessing
for you and all those that your life touches.