My Dad gave me much good advice over the course of our time together. He always said to buy good clothing as it would wear longer, look better, and save you money. Spot on.
He also gave me a poem at one of the low points of my young life which helped me that day and many times in the future. I am glad to have these words to console me whenever life sometimes gets too hard, as it always does, for everyone.
If
-Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Longest Day of the Year
Seemingly, every year at this time I remember what the F. Scott Fitzgerald character, Daisy Buchanan, from one of my favorite novels The Great Gatsby, said about the Summer Solstice,
"In two weeks it'll be the longest day in the year....Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it."
Tomorrow is the longest day of the year 2015 above the equator. Like the aforementioned Daisy, I usually miss the event and rue the fact just like she did. Though this year will be different as by blogging about it, and spending the time to give this some thought I most certainly will consciously watch it come and go. Some people view it sadly as the days inevitably grow shorter, until the Winter Solstice in December when the whole process reverses itself. I've thought about it now and it appears to me that the old chestnut about life's events is true: it's not what life hands you, it's how you react.
Here's a picture from the RHS 2015 graduation which was held this week. Nobody does High School graduation better. Just hope these newly minted alumni are ready for all the goodbyes that graduation necessitates and the heart break that ensues. Maybe they will take some solace in knowing that graduation is difficult for everyone in every place. For what it's worth, these graduates do look sharp with the guys in their white tuxedos and the gals carrying red roses while wearing their own choice of white dress. The tradition is for the guys all to go to Biltmore Tuxedo on Ridgewood Avenue and rent the first tuxedo most of them have ever worn. The thing I remember about the outfit was the shoes were made of cardboard. The shoes matched the tuxedo perfectly but probable nobody at Biltmore expected them to be returned in the same shape as when they were rented out. They knew about the after graduation parties, the customary dip in Graydon Pool at sunrise, and the trips to the Jersey Shore the next day. The shoes were the least of their worries when you think about it. Just like the days growing shorter truly is the least of anyone's worries, especially if they miss the longest day of the year.
"In two weeks it'll be the longest day in the year....Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it."
Tomorrow is the longest day of the year 2015 above the equator. Like the aforementioned Daisy, I usually miss the event and rue the fact just like she did. Though this year will be different as by blogging about it, and spending the time to give this some thought I most certainly will consciously watch it come and go. Some people view it sadly as the days inevitably grow shorter, until the Winter Solstice in December when the whole process reverses itself. I've thought about it now and it appears to me that the old chestnut about life's events is true: it's not what life hands you, it's how you react.
Here's a picture from the RHS 2015 graduation which was held this week. Nobody does High School graduation better. Just hope these newly minted alumni are ready for all the goodbyes that graduation necessitates and the heart break that ensues. Maybe they will take some solace in knowing that graduation is difficult for everyone in every place. For what it's worth, these graduates do look sharp with the guys in their white tuxedos and the gals carrying red roses while wearing their own choice of white dress. The tradition is for the guys all to go to Biltmore Tuxedo on Ridgewood Avenue and rent the first tuxedo most of them have ever worn. The thing I remember about the outfit was the shoes were made of cardboard. The shoes matched the tuxedo perfectly but probable nobody at Biltmore expected them to be returned in the same shape as when they were rented out. They knew about the after graduation parties, the customary dip in Graydon Pool at sunrise, and the trips to the Jersey Shore the next day. The shoes were the least of their worries when you think about it. Just like the days growing shorter truly is the least of anyone's worries, especially if they miss the longest day of the year.
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