Overheard on a recent expedition:
Assessor: “Can you show me where we are on the map?”
Candidate: “Here, just before the resurrection ground.”
A: “The resurrection ground?”
C: “Yep.”
A: “Do you mean the recreation ground?”
C: “Same thing, isn’t it?”
A: “….”
by Dr. Seuss
I recently read this at my sister’s wedding and I love the sentiment contained within it.
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are the couple who’ll decide where to go.
You’ll look up and down streets.
Look ‘em over with care.
About some you will say, “We don’t choose to go there.”
With your heads full of brains
and your shoes full of feet,
you’re too smart to go down,
any not-so-good street.
And you may not find any
you’ll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you’ll head straight out of town.
It’s opener there
in the wide open air,
Out there things can happen and frequently do
to people as brainy and footsy as you.
And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew.
Just go right along. You’ll start happening too.
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to great heights!
You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have all the speed.
You’ll pass the whole gang, and you’ll soon take the lead.
OH! THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!
You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
Wherever you fly you’ll be best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.
Except when you don’t.
Because sometimes, you won’t.
You’ll get mixed up of course, as you already know.
You’ll get mixed up with so many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step. Step with great care and great tact
and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.
And will you succeed? Yes! You will indeed!
(98 and three quarters percent guaranteed.)
You’re off to great places! Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting. So … get on your way!
“For London is like prison for children, especially if their parents are not rich. Of course there are the shops and theatres, and entertainments and things, but if your people are rather poor you don’t get taken to the theatres, and you can’t buy things out of the shops; and London has none of those nice things that children may play with without hurting the things or themselves—such as trees and sand and woods and waters. And nearly everything in London is the wrong sort of shape—all straight lines and flat streets, instead of being all sorts of odd shapes, like things.”
A striking and touching New Year’s Eve message delivered by author Neil Gaiman at Symphony Hall in Boston.
May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.
…I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you’ll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you’ll make something that didn’t exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.
via Makezine, picture from guilty’s flickrstream under Creative Commons
“You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.”
“You can’t get to wonderful without passing through alright”
“”It is too constricting to say that you must always think outside the box; whether you are thinking inside or outside the box, you are still letting the box dictate your thoughts, are you not? What you are not acknowledging is the honest fact that ‘the box’ itself is figmentary, illusory. And as long as one continues to act in reaction to this perceived set of dictates, one cannot be truly original in thought.”
Erica Amelia Smith,
An Address as to the Nature of the “Proper” Uses of Technology
“The best climber is the one having the most fun.”
We don't change organisations, we change people. People change organisations.
