On voting...

And so we shall have to do more than register and more than vote; we shall have to create leaders who embody virtues we can respect, who have moral and ethical principles we can applaud with enthusiasm.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Republicans have been accused of abandoning the poor. It's the other way around. They never vote for us.
-- Dan Quayle

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I VOTE FOR YOU FOR GOD

When your eyes have found the strength
To constantly speak to the world
All that is most dear
To your own
Life,

When your hands, feet, and tongue
Can perform in that rare unison
That comforts this longing earth
With the knowledge

Your soul,
Your soul has been groomed
In His city of love;

And when you can make others laugh
With jokes
That belittle no one
And your words always unite,

Hafiz
Does vote for you.

Hafiz will vote for you to be
The minister of every country in
This universe.

Hafiz does vote for you my dear.
I vote for you
To be
God.

Hafiz (Persian poet c. 1320-1389) translated by Daniel Ladinsky

On birthdays and growing older...

Granted, I'm prejudiced, but my son is one of my very favorite people and I love him muchly. As his 26th birthday is coming up next Wednesday, I've been pondering how much I appreciate his integrity and refusal to take anything at face value, how much I admire the way he overcame some big life challenges, and how I REALLY love his sense of humor. And yes, I tripped down memory lane and found some excerpts from his 1993 Mother's Day coupon book, titled "Watch out America -- We're Hippies Raising Teenagers: Trends of the '60s I Swear not to Follow":
"Levitating (or trying to levitate) Government Buildings"
"Blaming everything bad in life on LBJ: I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU GOT AWAY WITH THIS IN THE 60's!!!"
"Love-Ins: I swear not to take illegal drugs from people named "Moonbeam" or "Shine" or dance naked to no music and have sex with complete strangers claiming all this is 'helping stop a war'"
"Listening to Folk Singing: Thousands of modern teenagers would have admired your generation if you wouldn't have listened to such annoying music. Joan Baez????"
So, Happy Birthday, Forrest, and here's someone (not Joan Baez) singing a song by Bob Dylan:
Forever Young
...and various words on growing older and wiser:
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It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.--e.e.cummings
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Moving Forward

The deep parts of my life pour onward,
as if the river shores were opening out.
It seems that things are more like me now,
That I can see farther into paintings.
I feel closer to what language can't reach.
With my senses, as with birds, I climb
into the windy heaven, out of the oak,
in the ponds broken off from the sky
my falling sinks, as if standing on fishes.
--Rainer Maria Rilke
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Wisdom is the quality that keeps you from getting into situations where you need it. --Doug Larson
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Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many. --Unknown
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At sixteen I was stupid, confused and indecisive. At twenty-five I was wise, self-confident, prepossessing and assertive. At forty-five I am stupid, confused, insecure and indecisive. Who would have supposed that maturity is only a short break in adolescence?
--Jules Feiffer
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All that is gold does not glitter.
Not all those who wander are lost.
The old who are strong do not whither.
Deep roots are not touched by the frost.
--J.R.R. Tolkein
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Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
--Mark Twain
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