Happy Birthday To . . . Montesquieu & Binyavanga
January 18, 1689 Montesquieu "To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them. January 18, 1971 Binyavanga Wainaina "All people have dignity. There's nobody who was born without a soul and a spirit."
Poem: “What Kind of Times Are These,” by Adrienne Rich
There's a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill and the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows near a meeting-house abandoned by the persecuted who disappeared into those shadows. I've walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of...
Happy Birthday To . . . Catherine & David
January 17, 1829 Catherine Booth "If we are to better the future we must disturb the present." January 17, 1863 David Lloyd George "Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps."
Happy Birthday to . . . Dian & Susan
January 16, 1932 Dian Fossey "When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future." January 16, 1933 Susan Sontag "The past itself, as historical change continues to accelerate, has become the...
Happy Birthday to . . . Moliere & Martin
January 15, 1662 Moliere "It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do." January 15, 1929 Martin Luther King, Jr "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do...
The Mousetrap
A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. What food might this contain?” The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. There is a...
Happy Birthday To . . . Albert & Martin
January 14, 1875 Albert Schweitzer "The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others." January 14, 1892 Martin Niemoller "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist. Then they...
Poem: “In Praise of Craziness, of a Certain Kind,” by Mary Oliver
On cold evenings my grandmother, with ownership of half her mind- the other half having flown back to Bohemia- spread newspapers over the porch floor so, she said, the garden ants could crawl beneath, as under a blanket, and keep warm, and what shall I wish for, for...
Happy Birthday To . . . Brooke & James
January 12, 1835 Brooke Foss Westcott "What we can do for another is the test of powers; what we can suffer is the test of love." January 12, 1920 James L. Farmer, Jr. "Courage, after all, is not being unafraid, but doing what needs to be done in spite of fear."
Poem: “Saint Francis and the Sow,” by Galway Kinnell
The bud stands for all things, even for those things that don’t flower, for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing; though sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness, to put a hand on its brow of the flower and retell it in words and in...
Happy Birthday To . . . Abraham & Max
January 11, 1907 Abraham Joshua Heschel "Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason." January 11, 1955 Max Lucado "A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd."
Poem: “Forgiveness,” by John Greenleaf Whittier
My heart was heavy, for its trust had been Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong; So, turning gloomily from my fellowmen, One summer Sabbath day I strolled among the green mounds of the village burial place; Where, pondering how all human love and hate Find...
Happy Birthday To . . John & George
January 10, 1834 Lord Acton "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." January 10, 1864 George Washington Carver How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and...
King Log and King Stork
The Frogs were living as happy as could be in a marshy swamp that just suited them; they went splashing about caring for nobody and nobody troubling with them. But some of them thought that this was not right, that they should have a king and a proper constitution, so...
Hapy Birthday To . . Carrie & Simone
January 9, 1859 Carrie Chapman Catt "No written law has ever been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion." January 9, 1908 Simone de Beauvoir "It is not in giving life but in risking life that man is raised above the animal; that is why...
The Dog and His Master’s Dinner
A Fable adapted by Jean de La Fontaine Our eyes are not made proof against the fair, Nor hands against the touch of gold. Fidelity is sadly rare, And has been from the days of old. Well taught his appetite to check, And do full many a handy trick, A dog was trotting,...
Happy Birthday To . . Baltasar & AJ
January 8, 1601 Baltasar Gracian "Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it." January 8, 1885 A.J. Muste "There is no way to peace; peace is the way."
Happy Birthday To . . . Emily & Carl
January 8, 1867 Emily Greene Balch "Nothing can be woven out of threads that all run the same way." January 8, 1902 Carl Rogers "In my early professional years I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question...
Happy Birthday To . . . Sam & Kahlil
January 6, 1882 Sam Rayburn "Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one." January 6, 1883 Kahlil Gibran "When we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies."
Poem: “Escape,” by D. H. Lawrence
When we get out of the glass bottles of our own ego, and when we escape like squirrels from turning in the cages of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright but things will happen to us so that we don't know ourselves. Cool,...
Happy Birthday To . . . Alvin & Umberto
January 5, 1931 Alvin Ailey "From his roots as a slave, the American Negro - sometimes sorrowing, sometimes jubilant but always hopeful - has touched, illuminated, and influenced the most remote preserves of world civilisation. I and my dance theater celebrate this...
Happy Birthday To . . . Everett & Doris
January 4, 1896 Everett Dirksen "There is no force so powerful as an idea whose time has come." January 4, 1943 Doris Kearns Goodwin "The past is not simply the past, but a prism through which the subject filters his own changing self-image."
The Dog in the Manger
A Dog looking out for its afternoon nap jumped into the Manger of an Ox and lay there cosily upon the straw. But soon the Ox, returning from its afternoon work, came up to the Manger and wanted to eat some of the straw. The Dog in a rage, being awakened from its...
Happy Birthday To . . . Douglas & JRR
January 3, 1803 Douglas William Jerrold "A conservative is a man who will not look at the new moon out of respect for that 'ancient institution' the old one." January 3, 1892 JRR Tolkien "It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near...