The Cotton Shedd

Good Quotes

• Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. - Dr. Seuss

• Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. - Mark Twain

 

John 4:35

"...behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest."   John 4:35

The Gift of Work

If you give a child life, you need to give him a way to make a living and one of the greatest gifts you can give a child is the gift of work.  From Ann

I couldn't agree more.

Time Will Tell

“Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction.”

- Thomas Jefferson

Opportunity

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

                           ~Thomas Edison~

A Poem Worth Reading

For a long long time my favorite poem has been "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost.  I am sorry Mr. Frost but Mary Oliver has taken your spot with her poem, "The Journey" which I cannot seem to read enough as of late. 

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save. 

© Mary Oliver. Online Source

Do We Really Need Them?

I have been reading different outcries of panic that one government agency or another will be cut - most recently the Arizona Department of Agriculture.  Perhaps I am turning Libertarian with age, but it seems you can't legislate integrity and these government agencies often do more harm than good at great expense that could be actually be used for something productive. Maybe less government and bureaucrats replaced with capable citizenry will be a blessing than comes out of this economy.  I believe Mark Twain sums it up better than me when he says...

“The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivalry of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and, in time, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise.”

- Mark Twain

Happy New Year!

Simplicity, many people think,
is an end in itself
But they're getting it backwards
Simplicity is the path, the means
It's not a far off destination,
somewhere in the future
It's right here, right now
It's taking things one at a time
It's asking simple questions
It's taking simple actions
It's doing it slowly
It's considering and being conscious,
with everything

When you find yourself becoming overwhelmed
on the path to simplicity
Taking a complicated, frenzied path
to get there
Stop, consider, and choose
the simpler path
And take it slowly
And easily
And lovely

From http://mnmlist.com

"There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbors. This is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry."

Franklin, Benjamin ·

"Trade increases the wealth and glory of a country; but its real strength and stamina are to be looked for among the cultivators of the land."

- William Pitt