Quotes of Note and a Message

I think I must have typed Merry Christmas at least 200 times already this month, but once more won't hurt! To all who read here, please know that you have given me many hours of pleasure this year with your writing, your humor, your compassion and your good wishes during our time of strife. You have been a sounding board and a stepping stone, both of which I needed in mass quantities since mr. kenju's stroke. Without your comments, advice and support, I might have had to resort to psychiatric therapy.....which I have been able to avoid thus far in my life....and hope not to have to try at this ripe age. Thank you for your many blessings, which you give freely (though you may not know it) and I receive in the spirit of gratitude, now and forever.

My whole family is coming Monday for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner and present exchange. I will be scarce on the internets for a short while.

_________________________________________________

There are few things more disturbing than to find, in somebody we detest, a moral quality which seems to us demonstrably superior to anything we ourselves possess. It augurs not merely an unfairness on the part of creation, but a lack of artistic judgment. Sainthood is acceptable only in saints.

Pamela Hansford Johnson, poet and novelist (1912-1981)

^^^^^^^

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)

^^^^^^^

A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from the vexation of thinking.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher(1803-1882)

<<<<<<<

A tragic indicator of the values of our civilization is that there's no business like war business.

Douglas Mattern, peace activist (b. 1933)