Love of bustle is not industry.
Author: Dell Deaton
The king had two sons — one an optimist, the other a pessimist. The king gave the pessimist everything he desired, and he gave the optimist a room full of horse manure.
The pessimist was despondent because he no longer had anything to look forward to. The optimist was as happy as he could be. ‘With all this manure,’ he said, ‘there must be a pony in here somewhere.’
A study at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, proved that when total strangers hold eye contact for an extended period of time, they start to feel affection for one another even if they haven’t spoken.
— Jennifer Benjamin, “Ways to say ‘I Love You’ Without a Word
segue
- proceed to what follows without pause —used as a direction in music
- perform the music that follows like that which has preceded —used as a direction in music
Dunno from music (with apologies to Laurie Jo): I stick pretty much with the first definition.
Major Don West (Matt LeBlanc):
Listen doc, I’m, uh, I’m thinking this is your basic ‘kiss for good luck’ situation. Wouldn’t ya’ think?
Dr Judy Robinson (Heather Graham):
Thinking! Not exactly your strong suit, is it?
— Stephen Hopkins, director
Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.
If you don’t like someone, the way he holds his spoon will make you furious; if you do like him, he can turn his plate over into your lap and you won’t mind.
You’ve heard the argument — typically from some vocal zealot short on any other merit to support his position.
We should do this thing even if it only benefits one person in a thousand.
Thus, highway speeds should be lowered to 35 MPH, if justified no more than by saving just one more life. Church doors should never be locked, if only to save the soul of just one midnight sinner otherwise lost. No idea should go unheard, in excruciating detail! during a brainstorming session, if only to allow that it may be that one in a thousand which turns out to be a moneymaker.
The problem is that none of these arguments takes consequence into account. For every choice, there is an alternative: A choice not made, no longer available.
Refusal to consider consequence does not negate the fact that lowering the speed limit will impact all sorts of lives, in all sorts of ways. It may save one life in a thousand. It may also impede commerce to such a degree that a greater multiple of other lives are lost because food, medical supplies, and disaster relief cannot be delivered timely.
An empty church that is left unlocked is at high risk for vandalism and looting, consequently leaving it unusable for an entire congregation. Hire security? That may come at the expense of missions programs. Or existing staff could simply be assigned “watch” duties — if you’re open to burning their candles at both ends.
If you’ve ever been in a free-for-all “team” meeting sans responsible structuring, I don’t need to tell you how quickly the intellectual and emotional contributions of your real horses will be snuffed by unbridled flights of fancy.
Of course there are some ideas that are bad even before they’ve crossed the speaker’s lips.
Time has value. Things exist as they do for reasons. All change comes at some cost. It’s not unkind, closed-minded, or greedy to acknowledge this.
On the other hand, the “if only for one in a thousand” conversation-stopper seems to me very much all of these things.
If a solution is truly the best, right way to go, then show all of us the respect of doing the homework, organizing a case for it, and making a logically persuasive argument based on real people, in a real world.
Show us real understanding of the sacrifices and consequences that are to be imposed on others. Be accountable, in the fullest sense of cost-to-benefit ratios.
Truly good ideas and needs met must be rise by their own merits, sans hyperbole.
The Martian troops, moreover, had no control over where there ships were to land. Their ships were controlled by fully automatic pilot-navigators, and these electronic devices were set by technicians on Mars so as to make the ships land at particular points on Earth, regardless of who awful the military situation might be down there.
The only controls available to those on board were two push-buttons on the center post of the cabin — one labeled on and one labeled off. The on button simply started the flight from Mars. The off button was connected to nothing. It was installed at the insistence of Martian mental-health experts, who said that human beings were always happier with machinery they thought they could turn off.
— The Sirens of Titan
I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.