Happy Spring Equinox!
These nearly two years in the pandemic have caused me to reacquaint myself with the seasons and rhythms of the world. The changes in seasons (such as they are in California), the birds building their nests in our bougainvillea, the births of the chicks, the shortened of days of Winter giving way to the long Summer days. Those who don’t see the seasons in Southern California’s temperate climate aren’t looking closely enough.
Today’s Musing ends with a Ukrainian group’s cover of Chicago. It’s 3:21. They are extraordinary. Wait for the ending credits. This comes to us from Kyiv. One of the things we can do at this fraught time is remember these happy musicians, singing their hearts out before the Russians laid waste to their country.
POETRY
Scott Sandler offers up a selection for poetry that brings to mind “If,” by Rudyard Kipling:
The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
© Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968, renewed 2001
MUSIC
From Ukraine, this cover of Chicago’s “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”:
Have a great day,
Glenn
From the archives:
I like The Paradoxical Commandments. And fun to see the Ukrainians playing Chicago. (One of Chicago’s members used to live near a school where I was principal. Would have been fun to get them to play in Malibu.).