I also am farmer.

On the way home from church, we stopped by Wal-Mart for a couple of groceries. I accompanied my mother into the store, wearing my simple black suit and fedora. Mom picked a watermelon by appearance, but I hesitated before putting it in the cart, lifted it to me ear, and tapped on the rind. After I had placed in on the bottom of the shopping cart, a man in checkered shirt and full, straight, gray beard came up behind me and with knowing look in his eye and Eastern European accent, tapped a finger on a watermelon and said, “I know. I also am farmer.” I feel like the man peered into my soul.

"Welcome to the Family", by Little Big Town

"Welcome to the Family",
by Little Big Town

Welcome to the family. Hope you have a real good life
With my little sister. Yeah, she'll make a real good wife.
Hope you have lots of babies; hope you get a real good job.
Hope you don't mind company, 'cause we'll be here a lot.
And brother here's some brotherly advice:
If you know what's good for you, you'll treat her right.

'Cause Grandpa's the local sheriff. He's the judge and the jury too.
Uncle Bill's the undertaker. Son, he'll dig a hole for you.
Cousin Jesse, he's just crazy. He'll fight you just for fun.
Mama's got a real bad temper, and daddy's got a shotgun.

Welcome to the family and this side of the tracks.
If you ever leave her, you ain't coming back.
My nephew Red's a hunter. He's gonna hunt you down,
Just like he did the last one, and he still ain't been found.
Now, I like you just fine. Don't get me wrong.
But boy take care of her, 'cause if you don't-

Grandpa's the local sheriff. He's the judge and the jury too.
Uncle Bill's the undertaker. Son, he'll dig a hole for you.
Cousin Jesse, he's just crazy. He'll fight you just for fun.
Mama's got a real bad temper, and daddy's got a shotgun.

Welcome to the family. Hope you have a real good life
With my little sister, Yeah, she'll make a real fine wife.

Man in the Arena

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt

"Citizenship in a Republic,"

Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

Life Lessons

"We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I'd like better.

"I'd really like for them to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches. I really would. I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated.

"I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car. And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen. It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.

"I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in. I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger sibling. And it's all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room, but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he's scared, I hope you let him.

"When you want to see a movie and your little brother or sister wants to tag along, I hope you'll let him or her.

"I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely. On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don't ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won't be seen riding with someone as uncool as your Mom.

"If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one. I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books. When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head. I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.

"May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole. I don't care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don't like it. And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he is not your friend.

"I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandma and Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle. May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays. I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor's window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.

"These things I wish for you - tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it's the only way to appreciate life."

http://www.macagency.com/1955/justforfun.php

http://www.macagency.com/1955/

Beauty

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: The Preface

The artist is the creator of beautiful things.

To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.

The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.

The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming.

This is a fault.

Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.

They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.

That is all.

The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.

The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass.

The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved.

No artist has ethical sympathies.

An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything.

Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art.

Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art.

From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician.

From the point of view of feeling, the actor's craft is the type.

All art is at once surface and symbol.

Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.

Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.

It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.

Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.

When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself.

We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

All art is quite useless.

--OSCAR WILDE