Ella's Notebook

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us.

Your playing small does not serve the world.
  There is nothing enlightened about shrinking 
       so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were all meant to shine as chirldren do.
  It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
   we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
  As we are liberated from our own fear,
       our presence automatically liberates others.

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Marianne Williamson's poem in the film 'Coach Carter'
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NEIGHBORS

The charges were being read against the man in the dock.
“You are charged that on the 25^th February you murdered your wife with an axe.” 
From the back of the Court someone yelled, “You bastard!”

The judge brought down his gavel and sternly demanded that there be silence in the Court. The Clerk of Courts continued.
“You are further charged that on the same day you murdered your mother-in-law with an axe.” 
“You rotten bastard!” came a shout from the back.

Again the judge brought down his gavel and ordered that the interjector be brought before him.
“What's the meaning of this outburst?” he demanded.

“I'm his next door neighbor, Your Honor. Only a month ago, I asked to borrow his axe and the swine said that he didn’t have one.”


OH SHIT!

The studious-looking young man in horn-rimmed glasses approached the young lady sitting on her own in the single bar. After introducing himself, she said, “Tell me about yourself.”

“I'm a nuclear physicist,” he said, “and I've been working on a top-secret job for the last five years. Would you like me to tell you all about it?”

“Let me ask you a few questions first,” said the young lady. She continued, “When a rabbit poops, why does it come out in hard little round balls?”
“I've got no idea,” said the nuclear physicist.

“Well, here’s another one,” said the young lady. “How can elephants drop square turds out of a round arsehole?”
“I can't answer that,” replied the physicist.

“Well, why do dog turds drop like a coil of rope?” she asked.
“You've got me again!” he said.

“Well,” she said, “it seems to me, you don’t know shit! And you want to talk to me about nuclear physics!”

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固然生命是極難承受的，但也不必做出一副十分嬌弱的樣子！
我們都是善於拉車的馱馬或母驢。
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What do you need to be the best?                
Concentration.  Discipline.  A dream.

                                     - Florence Griffith Joyner 
                                            Olympic gold medalist 

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human beings

  in thick cocoons of complexity and ambivalence
  the innocent kids

人啊！笑容和眼淚之間的鐘擺 * 

人啊！流動不停的水銀找尋靜止
人啊！現實和幻想之間的自欺
人啊！感情和理性間永不平行的曲線
人啊！從腳旁的南瓜踏過去，大聲咒詛滿徑的荊棘

人啊！複雜和矛盾厚繭中  天真的孩子

                                - 荊棘  *拜倫詩
                                  收錄於隱地「心的掙扎」1984 爾雅出版 

...繼續閱讀

.
確實，真正的認識自我並不是一件簡單的事，

我們往往在行動之前，會先詢問場景，

探詢他人的情況，以及試圖確認自我可能扮演的角色。

因此，「看場合說話」和「表裡不一」的褒貶評語，

不斷地困擾著我們在人生舞台的演出。

然而，探究何謂真正自我是沒有意義的，

我們每個人都在人生的舞台上表演，
只要我們活著，這齣戲碼就不會結束，
即便我們自認是以最真誠的態度在與人互動，

也必須明白，這不過是演出的一個部份。 

摘自「日常生活中的自我表演」桂冠中譯書面介紹

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman
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Muss es sein?  Ja, es muss sein.  - Beethoven                 

Milan Kundera  http://contipromotor.cz/destination-czech/famous-czechs/

About the book:

I believe there are always some true values in our lives, so we can go through all the hardness and still smile. May all of my friends have peace, warmness and happiness in this cold season. 

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.  The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.  Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway.  You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It never was between you and them anyway. - Mother Teresa

Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair,
but manifestations of strength and resolution. - Kahlil Gibran

Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth.  - Mark Twain 

Sometimes I could easily get hooked by some philosophic matters. Especially today, when I read the sentences that I have underlined as below, I just couldn’t help but suddenly burst into laugh. 
God goofed ? Yes. Maybe.

* A Q&A posted on the website ‘Ask a Philosopher’:

============
Rosie asked:
Does 'a God who intervenes miraculously cannot be benevolent? ' logically make sense?

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Jurgen Lawrenz answered: