March 22, 2014

Good Morning!

Today is the birthday of Stephen Pearl Andrews (1812 – 1886) who said:

“A grand social revolutions will occur. Tyranny of all kinds will disappear, freedom of all kinds will be revered, and none will be ashamed to confess that they believe in the Freedom of Love.”

It is also the birthday of Louis L’Amour (1908 – 1988) who said:

“For one who reads, there is no limit to the number of lives that may be lived, for fiction, biography, and history offer an inexhaustible number of lives in many parts of the world, in all periods of time.”

and

“I have read my books by many lights, hoarding their beauty, their wit or wisdom against the dark days when I would have no book, nor a place to read. I have known hunger of the belly kind many times over, but I have known a worse hunger: the need to know and to learn.”

Happy Birthday to E.D. Hirsch, Jr. (1928 - ) who said:

“The distance between one historical period and another is a very small step in comparison to the huge metaphysical gap we must leap to understand the perspective of another person in any time or place.”

Also to Stephen Sondheim (1930 - ) who said:

“If I cannot fly, let me sing.”

and

“Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.”

and

“The worst thing you can do is censor yourself as the pencil hits the paper. You must not edit until you get it all on paper. If you can put everything down, stream-of-consciousness, you'll do yourself a service.”

A grand birthday wish boldly goes to William Shatner (1931 - ) who said:

“One of the advantages of being a captain is being able to ask for advice without necessarily having to take it.”

and

“I’m always open to the idea that somebody’s got a better idea than I have. It happens with some frequency.”

A very special birthday greeting to one of my favorite poets Billy Collins (1941 - ) who wrote these wonderful pieces:

“Introduction to Poetry”

“Marginalia”

“The History Teacher”

Today is the birthday of Rudy Rucker (1946 - ) who said:

“The simple process of eating and breathing weave all of us together into a vast four-dimensional array. No matter how isolated you may sometimes feel, no matter how lonely, you are never really cut off from the whole.”

Finally, it is the birthday of Keegan-Michael Key (1971 - ) who said:

“A poet can feel free, in my estimation, to write a poem for himself. Or a painter can paint a painting for himself. You can write a short story for yourself. But for me, comedy by its nature is communal. If other people don't get it, I'm not sure why you are doing it.”