It's all about makin' music and makin' love - everything else is just killing time.
>Mike Beane's situation is reason for this post.
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>It seems getting older, retiring from a job, undergoing a "fractuosity" like a heart attack, cancer, or anything that may take you to the intersection of life and death causes one to ask, "what matters?"
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>Having been almost killed on numerous occasions, growing older, retiring from one job, etc, I've given it a lot of thought. I have come to the conclusion that family, friends and making things better than they would otherwise be, without you, are the only things that REALLY matter. Everything else is fluff or distraction, it seems.
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>As I was getting closer to retirement, I asked myself, "did I make a difference?" I think I did, and I continue to do so in my chosen field. It is my passion, so it's easy to do. The next hard question is really the same question for life. I've heard it said that few people will say, on their deathbed, "I wish I had worked more." I've been a work-a-holic all my life, or so I'm told. So, I've been working on spending time with others who matter. It's like I tell my wife, God's not through with me yet!<g>
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>Mike, this is for you, buddy. What matters in life?
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
