NezSez

• “Love doesn’t make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.” –Franklin P. Jones
• “At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.” –Plato
• “Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.” –Robert Frost
• “Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” –C.S. Lewis
• “If you have it [Love], you don’t need to have anything else, and if you don’t have it, it doesn’t matter much what else you have.” –Sir James M. Barrie
• “Love is a friendship set to music.” –E. Joseph Cossman
• “Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.” –Albert Einstein
• “A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.” –Ingrid Bergman
• “Love at first sight is easy to understand; it’s when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle.” –Amy Bloom
• “The first duty of love is to listen.” –Paul Tillich

Here’s my own:

February 14th should only serve as a reminder that there are 364 other days in the year when you should say “I love you.”

Have a wonderful day.

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Since we’re observing the birth of Dr. Martin Luthor King, Jr. today, I thought I’d list a few of my favorite quotes from this influential man.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

– I see this as a universal truth on how we should deal with setbacks and failures, when the going gets rough, when we feel overwhelmed and stress.

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”

– this one hits home, and is one of the underlying reasons for this blog, and why I chose to focus this blog’s theme on Critical Thinking.

“One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.”

– Inspiring. Of course, Dr. King must have been referring to Rosa Parks.

If you’re interested in more quotes, check out Brainyquote.

In the “Beginning”, We Were Farmers

The United States started out as 13 colonies, where one of main focuses was farming, since everyone had to eat. Households had farms that provided most of their needs, and any excess can be used for barter, trading, etc. Only with adequate food could there have been development of trade, much less the Revolutionary War. I’d say farming was king.

Unparalleled Growth In the Intervening Years

Over the ensuing decades, social, economic, and technological development resulted in increased populations, and mass production of foodstuff. Industrialization resulted in a multitude of products. Cars and planes brought helped make the world a bit smaller. We got a couple of World Wars, the Baby Boom, the Golden Age of Television, the Age of Information. During these times, most of our foods came from giant corporate farms who supplied massive factories, fast-food chains, etc. They still do now.

Coming Full Circle In Recent Years

But now, we are learning to shop local farmers’ markets, end the use of chemical fertilizers, go organic, reuse, recycle and compost (I’m all for that).

Wanting to escape from the modern “rat race”, some families even move out of the big cities, onto their own land.

To farm.

“Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own points of view.” — Obi Wan Kenobi

I love this Star Wars quote, one of many, actually.

Universal Truth about Points of View

But in this case, it really struck me as a universal truth. As author Dale Carnegie explains in How to Win Friends and Influence People, people do not normally do things because they think they are wrong, but rather because they think they are in the right because, from their point of view, they are.

We know that a cup with liquid taking up half the volume can be viewed as half-full, or half-empty — we often use that phrase to illustrate optimism versus pessimism. However, if we just analyze the phrase for its inherent logic, we can see that both statements ARE true, but only from a certain point of view.

A cup can be half-full of liquid, from the frame of reference of how much “content” we have. At the same time, a half-filled cup is also a half-empty, from the frame of reference of the total cup volume.

How I Apply the Points of View Principle

• Personal and Professional - When I hear a complaint from either a client, or even my honey, I bite my tongue from wanting to respond right away. Instead, I take the stance that they are right, from their point of view. And from there, I try to arrive at a resolution that will be satisfactory for all parties involved.
• Parenting - When the kids are voicing their wants, I listen and I think of why they feel so strongly about whatever it is they want, and how I can leverage that to guide them to, and teach them things I feel is important.
• World/Current Events - When I listen to politicians on the news, be it the local city supervisors, or the U.S. President, or foreign powers, I take into account their points of view. As such, I can understand why foreign terrorists feel the need to do what they do — I don’t condone it, but I understand, but I also know there has to be a better way to peace. On a local level, I can understand why we have developers versus environmentalists, renters versus landlords, etc.

Important Component to Critical Thinking

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that understanding points of view is an important, critical component to critical thinking.

I hope you see my point.

If you’ve been in a memorable situation where you’ve seen valid points of view, I’d love to hear them.