Tuesday, February 18, 2020

2020-08 - Conformity...

One day a fairly intelligent fly came buzzing by a clean spider web. The spider called out, "Come in and sit." But the fly said, "No, ma'am. I don't see other flies in your house, and I am not going in alone!"

But presently the fly saw on the floor below a large crowd of flies dancing around on a piece of brown paper. It was delighted! It was not afraid as lots of flies were doing the same. So the fly came in for a landing.

Just before it landed, a bee zoomed by, saying, "Don'’t land there, stupid, that's flypaper!" But the fly shouted back, "Don't be silly, those flies are dancing. There's a big crowd there. That many flies can't be wrong." Well, you know what happened, the fly got stuck and died.

 Isn't it strange how some of us want to be with the crowd so badly that we end up in a sticky mess. What does it profit a fly (or a person) if it escapes the web only to end up stuck in the glue?

~ Author Unknown




Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

 ~ John F Kennedy


Tuesday, February 11, 2020

2020-07 - Faith Works...

There was an old man who operated a rowboat for ferrying passengers between an island and the mainland. One day a passenger noticed that he had painted on one oar the word "Works", and on the other oar the word "Faith". Curiosity led him to ask the meaning of this.

The old man replied, "I will show you," dropping one oar, rowing only with the oar named "Works". Of course, the boat just went around in circles. Then he switched oars, picking up "Faith" and dropping "Works". And the little rowboat went around in circles again... this time in the opposite direction.

After this demonstration, the old man picked up both oars "Faith" and "Works", and rowing with both oars together swiftly coursed over the water. He looked at the passenger and said, "You see, that is the way it is in life as well as in rowing a boat. You got to keep both oars in the water, otherwise, you'll just go in circles."

~ Mina Kompolis




We are twice armed if we fight with faith.

~ Plato

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

2020-06 - Perseverance

When he was still a young man, Beethoven decided to compose a few improvisations on a music by Pergolesi. He devoted months to this task and finally had the courage to publish it.

A critic wrote a full page review in a German newspaper in which he launched a ferocious attack on the music. Beethoven, however, was quite unshaken by his comments.

When his friends pressed him to respond to the critic, he merely said: "All I need to do is to carry on with my work. If the music I compose is as good as I think it is, then it will survive that journalist. If it has the depth I hope it has, it will survive the newspaper too. Should the people love it, I shall achieve immortality."

Beethoven was absolutely right.

Over a hundred years later, that same composition was played by a radio station in São Paulo.

~ Author Unknown




Perseverance is a great element of success.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow