(This is not about the dictionary, the thesaurus, or politics)

We live in an over-stimulated society, with messages constantly coming at us in many forms, from many sources. Tempting as it may be to turn a blind eye or a deaf ear, paying attention allows us to be selective, to remember messages that are encouraging, uplifting, inspiring, etc., and to share them with others. Here are examples of special messages I (Ginny) am happy to pass along.

Alan Watts was a priest-turned-philosopher, and popular author/lecturer during the 60’s. I was fortunate enough to meet him when he lectured at UOP, and his picture now hangs on my office wall. We’ve all heard “In nature there are no straight lines,” but Watts has a cleverer way of putting it -- “Life is squiggly.” Also, instead of “We have to take the bad with the good,” he says that “We can’t take home just the front half of a puppy.”

Original source unknown, but this verse was at the bottom of an e-mail sent to me by Debra Nolan, Administrative Assistant in the Sports Science Department of UOP, where I teach Yoga. She explained it’s her way of keeping the personal touch in communication that today’s technology often renders too impersonal.

A favorite Silverstein poem, which is a twist on the Longfellow classic, became permanently engrained in my memory the first time I read it many years ago. It goes like this:

I shot an arrow into the sky

It hit a white cloud floating by

The cloud fell dying to the shore

I don’t shoot arrows anymore.