Random Variables :: random thoughts deep and wide

On a scale of 1 to 10 ...

randal — Tue, 11 Nov 2003 13:12:00 GMT

how much do you tend to see the good in every situation? (Circle one)

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 -10

Then read this:

"An individual has a healthy personality to the exact degree to which they have the propensity to look for the good in every situation." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Criticizing trivial actions

randal — Mon, 29 Sep 2003 12:27:00 GMT

If you're into tatoos and such extreme thing, why not tatoo this on your forehead?

Our souls may lose their peace and even disturb other people's, if we are always criticizing trivial actions -- which often are not real defects at all, but we construe them wrongly through our ignorance of their motives. --St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

Loneliness and solitude

randal — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 18:13:00 GMT

Loneliness can be conquered only by those who can bear solitude.

--Paul Tillich, The Eternal Now (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1963), p. 21.

Switching the letters

randal — Wed, 17 Sep 2003 17:24:00 GMT

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

A fnried snet me teh smae tnihg as avboe, but in Prtougeuse. Wroekd jsut as wlel.

Whew! Hard to do. But I didn't scramble the first paragraph, one of those things you see on a discussion list or circulates around the emails.

In Portuguese, it worked just as well, was quite readable. I was encouraged -- lefthanders like me are notorious for switching letters. It's some physiological trait. Too bad switching numbers isn't as innocuous as the letters.

I'm still studying to see what spiritual lesson can be drawn from this. Hmm.

Now that's commitment

randal — Wed, 21 May 2003 10:31:00 GMT

Here's a supposedly true classified ad:

To Mary. My love for you would climb the highest mountain. My love for you would cross the hottest desert. My love for you would cause me to swim the widest stream. My love for you would cause me to die at the stake for you. Love, Jim. P.S. I'll see you Sunday, if it doesn't rain.