--I AM BARELY BREATHING

…I have had Dolly Parton’s song, “Jolene,” stuck in my head for a couple of days after posting this video on Facebook about her inspiration for the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH3sQPtR_1Y

…I didn’t expect it to be this tough, with my Dad’s passing and all.  We weren’t very close.  We were very different people.  We maybe talked on the phone every three or four months.  Yet, somehow, his death has decimated me.  It would probably take a therapist to explain why.  It could simply be that I’m looking for a reason to be sad, to wallow.

…I don’t usually post stuff about my personal life on Facebook, but I this one time as I said above.  It’s kind of remarkable how supportive people are/were, even people I don’t know.  It was nice, actually.

One person who I know virtually said this, which I thought was very wise:

"I am so sorry Len. No matter how old we are, we feel like orphans when our parents die."

…Anyway, so I’m off to Spokane.  The funeral is Friday morning at 9:00 am.  Wish me luck.

…Instead of sadness, I’ll leave you with some of my favorite things on a funky Thursday:

-“The scale of affection is fluid.”  Max Braverman

-“In Silicon Valley, failure is experience. Now, if you fail at everything, that's different. But a failure is a mark of experience more than anything.”  

-Vint Cerf, One of the Key Creators of the Internet

-“Destiny, I feel, is also a relationship - a play between divine grace and willful self-effort. Half of it you have no control over; half of it is absolutely in your hands, and your actions will show measurable consequence. Man is neither entirely a puppet of the Gods, nor is he entirely the captain of his own destiny; he's a little of both. We gallop through life like circus performers balancing on two speeding side by side horses - one foot is on the horse called fate, the other on the horse called free will. And the question you have to ask every day is - which horse is which? Which horse do I need to stop worrying about because it's not under my control,  and which do I need to steer with concentrated effort?”
-- Elizabeth Gilbert

“Many people believe that support is something that you give to someone you feel sorry for or that it means propping up someone who would fail unless you were there to give him a boost. But that's not the way I see it. Support is the boost you can give someone who can help himself but who needs a partner to open a window or push aside a roadblock.”
-- Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's

“Everything can be taken from a man, but one thing, the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude to any given set of circumstances, to choose one's way.”
-- Viktor Frankl, Nazi concentration camp survivor

“Would it spoil the moment for you if I threw up?” Sarah Braverman

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” Pablo Picasso

“Friendship consists in forgetting what one gives,  and remembering what one receives.” Dumas The Younger

“If you are patient in one moment of anger you will save a thousand days of sorrow.”  Chinese Proverb

"The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them." Ralph Nichols