It's easy to grin
when your ship comes in
and you've got the stock market beat.
But the man worthwhile
is the man who can smile
when his shorts are too tight in the seat.
Okay, I jest. I'm sure you both recognize that little tome. But I cannot deny that when I started reading "The Man in the Glass" that's what came to mind.
First, lucky you guys. You have an office! I had one when i was in Bosnia, but that's the only time I've ever had anything other than a cubicle, and usually it's not even my own cubicle, but a shared cubicle. Personalization is not encouraged. So I don't have anything to hang on the walls.
I'm not much of a poetry guy, unless you count music. For example, here's a stanza from Heavy D that I really like:
On the news, bad news is all the news you'll ever see
The rich gettin' richer while the poor still live in poverty
I don't understand why you can't lend a helping hand to another man, who is your brother man
Times must change, now here's the plan
Let's make this land a better land
Or this one from DC Talk:
If confession is the road to healing
Forgiveness is the promised land, oh
I'm reaching out in my conviction
I'm longing to make amends, yeah
I'm more of a quotation guy, and I usually take down a few (or several) from the books that I read. At present, I have about 18 pages of book quotes. That's a little long for a blog post, so I'll just pick a couple. The quotes that I choose to keep usually speak to me in a powerful way, or express what I believe to be some kind of important life lesson or basic truth.
Mike Yaconelli from the book Stories of Emergence:
“Stories are always unfinished, partial, under construction,
never over. What’s great about stories
is their incompleteness because that reminds us we’re still learning,
recognizing, and understanding – which reminds us how little we know. Stories are agents of humility, because they
make it clear God isn’t done yet.”
Brian David Bruns from the book Rumble Yell: Discovering America's Biggest Bike Ride:
“So did I learn anything?
I learned that expectations are shackles.”
Christine Lewry from the book Thin Wire: A Mother's Journey Through Her Daughter's Heroin Addiction:
“But the door to change opens only one way: from the inside.”
Jen Hatmaker from the book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess:
“Self-deprecation is a cruel response to Jesus, who died and
made us righteous. Guilt is not Jesus’
medium. He is battling for global
redemption right now; His objective hardly includes huddling in the corner with
us, rehashing our shame again. He
finished that discussion on the cross.”
Nicholas Carr from the book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains:
“It’s not only deep thinking that requires a calm, attentive
mind. It’s also empathy and compassion.”
Sherry Turkle from the book Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other:
“My
own study of the networked life has left me thinking about intimacy – about
being with people in person, hearing their voices and seeing their faces,
trying to know their hearts. And it has
left me thinking about solitude – the kind that refreshes and restores. Loneliness is failed solitude.”
Chew on that for awhile.
