The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse
Now you must know that a Town Mouse once upon a time went on a visit to his cousin in the country. He was rough and ready, this cousin, but he loved his town friend and made him heartily welcome. Beans and bacon, cheese and bread, were all he had to offer, but he...
Poem: “Address: The Archaeans, One Cell Creatures,” by Pattiann Rogers
Although most are totally naked and too scant for even the slightest color and although they have no voice that I’ve ever heard for cry or song, they are, nevertheless, more than mirage, more than hallucination, more than falsehood. They have confronted sulfuric...
Happy Birthday to . . Rumi & Elie
September 30, 1207 Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there." September 30, 1928 Elie Wiesel "We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the...
Feliz cumpleaños a . . . Miguel y Miguel
September 29, 1547 Miguel de Cervantes "In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd." September 29, 1864 Miguel de Unamuno "My aim is to agitate and disturb people. I'm not selling bread; I'm selling yeast."
Happy Birthday To . . . Frances & Madeleine
September 28, 1839 Frances E. Willard "This seems to be the law of progress in everything we do; it moves along a spiral rather than a perpendicular; we seem to be actually going out of the way, and yet it turns out that we were really moving upward all the time."...
Happy Birthday To . . Sam & Clementine
September 27, 1722 Samuel Adams "It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." September 27, 1898 Clementine Paddleford "Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your...
Happy Birthday To . . . Ivan & Tom
September 26, 1849 Ivan Pavlov "Perfect as the wing of a bird may be, it will never enable the bird to fly if unsupported by the air. Facts are the air of science. Without them a man of science can never rise." September 26, 1888 T.S. Eliot "If you aren't in over your...
Fire, Water, Truth and Lies
A Folk Tale from Ethiopia Fire, Water, Truth and Lies were friends, but Lies wasn’t too happy about this and he wanted to destroy the harmony. So one day he said, “Why don’t we go together and look for free places so that each of us will have a kingdom of his own? So...
Poem: “Dream Deferred,” by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?
Happy Birthday To . . . Bill & Miroslav
September 25, 1897 William Faulkner "Man . . . is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance." September 25, 1956 Miroslav Volf "Prejudice is a form...
The Emperor’s New Clothes
Many years ago there was an Emperor so exceedingly fond of new clothes that he spent all his money on being well dressed. He cared nothing about reviewing his soldiers, going to the theatre, or going for a ride in his carriage, except to show off his new clothes. He...
Happy Birthday To . . . Horace & John
September 24, 1717 Horace Walpole "Justice is rather the activity of truth, than a virtue in itself. Truth tells us what is due to others, and justice renders that due. Injustice is acting a lie." September 24, 1775 John Marshall "To listen well is as powerful a means...
Poem: “I Sit And Look Out,” by Walt Whitman
I SIT and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame; I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with themselves, remorseful after deeds done; I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected,...
Happy Birthday To . . . Walter & Ani
September 23, 1889 Walter Lippman "A man has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do so." September 23, 1970 Ani DiFranco "I know there is strength in the differences between us. I know there is...
The Citizen of the World
A Story from the Jewish Tradition The Holy One gathered the dust for the creation of the first man from the four corners of the earth, The Spirit of Life asked God why did He do this. The Holy One replied, "If a man should chance to come from the East to the West, or...
Happy Birthday To . . Philip & David
September 22, 1694 Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield "Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today." September 22, 1909 David Riesman...
Tough on the Fish
A devout clergyman sought every opportunity to impress upon the mind of his son the fact that God takes care of all his creatures. Happening, one day, to see a crane wading in quest of food, the good man pointed out to his son the perfect adaptation of the crane to...
Happy Birthday to . . . Bernard & Leonard
September 21, 1925 Bernard Williams "People who say, 'Let the chips fall where they may,' usually figure they will not be hit by a chip." September 21, 1934 Leonard Cohen "There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."
The Great Fire and the Little Water
Among the Aztec people of Mexico, it is said that a long time ago there was a great fire in the forests that covered our Earth. People and animals started to run, trying to escape from the fire. Our brother owl, Tecolotl, was running away also when he noticed a small...
Happy Birthday To . . . Upton & Shiram
September 20, 1878 Upton Sinclair "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." September 20, 1911 Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya "God has himself given eyes, ears, hands, feet and nostrils in pairs, but...
Poem: “The Peace of Wild Things,” by Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild...
Happy Birthday To . . . Paulo & Mike
September 19, 1921 Paulo Freire "Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferals of information." September 19, 1932 Mike Royko "It's much harder to be a liberal than a conservative. Why? Because it is easier to give someone the finger than a...
A Fable, by Mark Twain
Once upon a time an artist who had painted a small and very beautiful picture placed it so that he could see it in the mirror. He said, "This doubles the distance and softens it, and it is twice as lovely as it was before." The animals out in the woods heard of this...
Happy Birthday To . . Sam & Agnes
September 18, 1709 Samuel Johnson "The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good." September 18, 1905 Agnes de Mille "The truest expression of a people is in its dances and its music. Bodies never lie."