Sports in Kentucky by Bob Watkins

Posted November 26, 2014 at 3:16 pm

Thanksgiving, “Thank you, Lord! … and lets eat!”

Blessings in our lives, soon after good health and family, we think of our Stuff.

An internet site recently ranked Americans’ collector favorites. Top Ten: 1. Coins, 2. Movies, 3. Stamps, 4. DVDs, 5. Video Games, 6. Dolls, 7. Cards, 8. Key chains, 9. Books, 10. Marbles.

Marbles? A reasonable list, isn’t it? We might reasonably add Comic books, antique toys, Native American relics (arrow heads) and baseball cards.

Our Stuff often lives in the garage, on a closet shelf, in the attic or a bank deposit box. We visit during holidays like this one … maybe.

My favorite Stuff lives in a computer file Worth Repeating Dept. I visit daily.

Quotations. Marvelous snippets of wisdom penned by those inspired by wit, failed love, anger, tragedy, a drink to many, grumpy disposition, or all. Words of whimsy, irony or corny nostalgia all homogenized into stacked phrases flavored by mood, why-are-we-here? reflections, and of course, knuckle Heads.

So, Thanksgiving and Stuff. I hope you find a chuckle or an inspirational one here that lives in your own life.

From Old Collector, these gems.

• You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you. – John Wooden

• The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. – Bertrand Russell

• A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows public opinion. – Chinese Proverb

• The proper office of a friend is to side with you when you are in the wrong. Nearly anybody will side with you when you are in the right. – unk

• By 50, everyone has the face he deserves. – George Orwell

• To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything. – Albert Einstein

• Tennessee Williams said if he got rid of his demons, he would lose his angels. – Dakin Williams

• A wise man once said … nothing. – unknown

• We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get the hell out of my way. – George S. Patton

• Keep away from small people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that. – unk

• An idea is to put truth in check-mate. – Jose Ortega Gasset.

• Greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention. – Richard Moss

• Admiration; is our polite recognition of another’s resemblance to ourselves. – Ambrose Bierce on praise

• Two best physicians of them all are Dr. Laughter and Dr. Sleep. – Gregory Dean Jr.

• It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up in the world of thought, that is to be educated. – Edith Hamilton, educator and writer

• Thinking: The soul talking with itself. – Plato

• People hate as they love, unreasonably. – William M. Thackeray

• My mind is my kingdom. – unk

• Many people, when they fall in love look for a little haven of refuge from the world, where they can be sure of being admired when they are not admirable, and praised when they are not praise-worthy. – Bert and Russell

• Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. – unk

• That which was not reasoned into a person, cannot be reasoned out. – Sydney Smith

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

• Language is the archives of history.

• Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And, because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.

• Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

• Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can.Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

• Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

MARK TWAIN

• I have been on the verge of being an angel all my life, but it’s never happened yet.

• Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

• Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.

• What work I have done, I have done because it has been play. If it had been work, I shouldn’t have done it.

• Difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.

• The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice.

• Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. – unk

• Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.

Comment: The instant after the claw hammer head has introduced itself to your innocent thumb.

Finally, from the Old Collector …

• Effective communication is: 20% what you know, 15% how you feel about it, and 65% making it ring like truth.

• Intoxicated by celebrity, too many swaggered ball coaches have forgotten winning ain’t it, competing is. Reward is not to have conquered, but to have played well. Swaggered athletes have forgotten too: Somewhere, a little kid is watching.

Last, my favorite for all collectors of Stuff.

• Yet ye know not what your life will be like tomorrow. You are but a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. – Bible, James 4-14

Happy Thanksgiving.

And so it goes.

bob.Watkins24@aol.com