--I'M STUCK ON YOU

…I’m going to Portland in two hours.  It’ll be a long weekend, but fun, I’m certain.

In the meantime, here are some things to ponder:

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." Anais Nin

"That is what we do as writers, we fail. And then we try again, and try to outlast our self-doubt.” Steve Almond

"The occupational hazards of making a spectacle of yourself, over the long haul, is that at some point you buy a ticket, too." Thomas McGuane

"Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns. I am thankful that thorns have roses." Allophones Karr

"We must never forget that our powerlessness was, and is, a wound. It is also the way to new power." SK

"Healing is complex and mysterious. Sometimes it can happen only through the mystery of the wound itself." Allan Campbell

"You grow up the first day you have that first real laugh--at yourself." Ethel Barrymore

"I left because there was no room for me.  But you could tell me not to go.  Say it to me.  Tell me not to go." Stephen Sondheim, "Sunday in the Park"

"If you listen to your mate manically well, you can't go wrong."  Helen Gurley Brown

"Courage does not always roar. Sometimes, it is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'" Anon

"The great end of art is to strike the imagination with the power of a soul that refuses to admit defeat even in the midst of a collapsing world." Friedrich Nietzsche

"Maybe we've used our skin as an excuse to compromise." Doug Crandell, "The Flawless Skin of Ugly People

"It is an old and ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way." Rollo May

“To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal. You see, I could conceive death, but I could not conceive betrayal.” Malcolm X

“I have no trouble with my enemies, but my damn friends, my God-damned friends… they’re the ones that keep me walking the floor nights.” Warren G. Harding

"All animals except man know that the ultimate of life is to enjoy it." Samuel Butler

"A childlike man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle aged habit and convention." Aldous Huxley

"It isn't for the moment you are stuck that you need courage, but for the long uphill climb back to sanity and faith and security." Anne Lindberg

"We find hope when we summon the courage to look for it." SK

"Salary is no object; I want only enough to keep body and soul apart." Dorothy Parker