Let's Start Living

"I believed in a good home, in sane and sound living, in good food, good times, work, faith and hope...."

Sun, 12 May 2013 03:07:12 -0400

“I believed in a good home, in sane and sound living, in good food, good times, work, faith and hope. I have always believed in these things. It was with some amazement that I realized I was one of the few people in the world who really believed in these things without going around making a dull middle class philosophy out of it. I was suddenly left with nothing in my hands but a handful of crazy stars.”

- Jack Kerouac On the Road

I can’t stop thinking about these words.

(via tessamess)

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Sun, 10 Mar 2013 14:19:51 -0400

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Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:42:47 -0500

"Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each..."

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 17:22:54 -0500

“Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often.”

- Jon Krakauer

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Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:50:00 -0500

"No one is taking away all the guns, but now I get it. Now I see what is happening. So this is what..."

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 03:08:00 -0500

““No one is taking away all the guns, but now I get it. Now I see what is happening. So this is what it is, their paranoid fear of a possible dystopic future prevents us from addressing our actual dystopic present. We can’t even begin to address 30,000 gun deaths that are actually in reality happening in this country every year because a few of us must remain vigilant against the rise of imaginary Hitler.””

- Jon Stewart

This child is the greatest thing on the internet.

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:58:00 -0500

This child is the greatest thing on the internet.

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Sat, 05 Jan 2013 15:11:43 -0500

"New York 1959 Guy Fawkes Day Dear Adlai, Back from Camelot, and, reading the papers, not at all..."

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 22:26:36 -0500

“

New York
1959
Guy Fawkes Day

Dear Adlai,

Back from Camelot, and, reading the papers, not at all sure it was wise. Two first impressions. First, a creeping, all pervading nerve-gas of immorality which starts in the nursery and does not stop before it reaches the highest offices both corporate and governmental. Two, a nervous restlessness, a hunger, a thirst, a yearning for something unknown—perhaps morality. Then there’s the violence, cruelty and hypocrisy symptomatic of a people which has too much, and last, the surly ill-temper which only shows up in human when they are frightened.

Adlai, do you remember two kinds of Christmases? There is one kind in a house where there is little and a present represents not only love but sacrifice. The one single package is opened with a kind of slow wonder, almost reverence. Once I gave my youngest boy, who loves all living things, a dwarf, peach-faced parrot for Christmas. He removed the paper and then retreated a little shyly and looked at the little bird for a long time. And finally he said in a whisper, “Now who would have ever thought that I would have a peach-faced parrot?”

Then there is the other kind of Christmas with present piled high, the gifts of guilty parents as bribes because they have nothing else to give. The wrappings are ripped off and the presents thrown down and at the end the child says—”Is that all?” Well, it seems to me that America now is like that second kind of Christmas. Having too many THINGS they spend their hours and money on the couch searching for a soul. A strange species we are. We can stand anything God and nature can throw at us save only plenty. If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much and would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy and sick. And then I think of our “Daily” in Somerset, who served your lunch. She made a teddy bear with her own hands for our grandchild. Made it out of an old bath towel dyed brown and it is beautiful. She said, “Sometimes when I have a bit of rabbit fur, they come out lovelier.” Now there is a present. And that obviously male teddy bear is going to be called for all time MIZ Hicks.

When I left Bruton, I checked out with Officer ‘Arris, the lone policeman who kept the peace in five villages, unarmed and on a bicycle. He had been very kind to us and I took him a bottle of Bourbon whiskey. But I felt it necessary to say—”It’s a touch of Christmas cheer, officer, and you can’t consider it a bribe because I don’t want anything and I am going away…” He blushed and said, “Thank you, sir, but there was no need.” To which I replied—”If there had been, I would not have brought it.”

Mainly, Adlai, I am troubled by the cynical immorality of my country. I do not think it can survive on this basis and unless some kind of catastrophe strikes us, we are lost. But by our very attitudes we are drawing catastrophe to ourselves. What we have beaten in nature, we cannot conquer in ourselves.

Someone has to reinspect our system and that soon. We can’t expect to raise our children to be good and honorable men when the city, the state, the government, the corporations all offer higher rewards for chicanery and deceit than probity and truth. On all levels it is rigged, Adlai. Maybe nothing can be done about it, but I am stupid enough and naively hopeful enough to want to try. How about you?

Yours,

John

”

- John Steinbeck to Adlai Stevenson

from America and Americans

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Tue, 01 Jan 2013 20:36:18 -0500

Feistodon.

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 01:29:00 -0500

Feistodon.

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Sat, 15 Dec 2012 21:07:09 -0500

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Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:56:24 -0500

"Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn...."

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 14:32:27 -0500

““Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.”

- Jack Kerouac
I’ve posted this before. but hot damn.

3 out of 5 Ugandan teammates. The odds are ever in my favor. ...

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 13:59:28 -0500

3 out of 5 Ugandan teammates. The odds are ever in my favor. (at San Diego International Airport (SAN))

itsherfactory: Sarah Addison Allen, The Girl Who Chased the...

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 01:49:50 -0500

itsherfactory:

Sarah Addison Allen, The Girl Who Chased the Moon

And at once I knew I was not magnificent. (at Grand...

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 14:22:00 -0500

And at once I knew I was not magnificent. (at Grand Canyon)

photo cred: Keni Gilley

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Wed, 07 Nov 2012 15:34:11 -0500

"If I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the..."

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 16:00:21 -0500

“

If I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food, it’s a plus for everybody.

Open your mind, get up off the couch, move.

”

- Anthony Bourdain’s final words in tonight’s No Reservations series finale. (via travelchannel)

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Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:01:49 -0400