Daily Celebrations

"Do unto others 20% better than you would expect them to do unto you to correct for subjective error."  ~ Linus Pauling Physicist Linus Carl Pauling (1901-1994) was born on this day in Portland, Oregon. His parents and great-grandparents were pioneers who traveled the Oregon Trail. As a youngster, Pauling would read the Encyclopedia Britannica for entertainment.  "Even as a child I wanted to understand the world about me," he said. Pauling earned two individual Nobel Prizes, in Chemistry (1954) for his research in the structure of molecular chemical bonding and for Peace (1962) following a relentless campaign against nuclear testing. "Satisfaction of one's curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life," he once said. Pauling's revolutionary research in biochemistry helped to draw the link between molecular irregularities and hereditary disease. He sparked controversy in 1970 with his book, Vitamin C and the Common C...

"The lowest ebb is the turn in the tide." ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Romantic poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) was born on this day in Portland, Maine, the son of a prominent Congressman.  After college, he studied abroad and taught at Harvard University before devoting himself full-time to writing poetry. He once said, "Fair words gladden so many a heart." A storyteller and imagination weaver, his inspirational poems celebrated love, patriotism, and nature and included such classics as Evangeline (1847), The Song of Hiawatha (1855), and Paul Revere's Ride (1863). A moral advocate of values, he said, "A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child." Longfellow was a respected scholar and able translator with a passion for language and culture.  As a lead member of the Fireside Poets, Longfellow was beloved by the readers of his time. His poetry was memorized and recited in classrooms and as fam...

"All music comes from God."  ~ Johnny Cash Country music legend John R. Cash (1932-2003) was born on this day to poor sharecroppers in Kingsland, Arkansas.  At age 12, Cash lost his younger brother Jack in a freak chain saw accident. He said the tragedy, "put a mournful tone in my life -- not just in my voice but in my whole life." One-fourth Cherokee Indian, the 6'2" Cash was known for his distinctive, resonant voice and prolific songwriting about love, hardships, and life's luckless souls. "After about three lessons (my) voice teacher said, 'Don't take voice lessons. Do it your way. You're a song stylist. Always do it your way,'" he explained. Johnny signed with Sun Records in 1955. His first public performance was opening for Elvis Presley. Cash gained immediate fame with hits such as Folsom Prison Blues and I Walk the Line . With a career of over 35 years and a voice that U2's Bono described ...

"The pain passes. The beauty remains."  ~ Pierre-Auguste Renoir Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) was born on this day in Limoges, France.  The son of a tailor, young Renoir painted fine porcelain in 1854 and learned the importance of craftsmanship while joyously celebrating decorative beauty. This joie de vivre continued when he met Claude Monet at Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1861. They created Impressionism which defied convention and depicted real life and the changing sparkle of light. Renoir left the confines of his studio to paint in Paris' open air (en plein air), finding spontaneous inspiration from nature. With each feathered stroke he conveyed life's richness in bright splashes of colorful flowers and radiant faces. "I invent nothing," he said modestly. "I rediscover." The Dance at the Moulin de la Galette (1876) captured a Sunday dance in Montmartre with smiling young men and women. In dappled sunlight, T...

"Always, always, always, always, always do what you are afraid to do." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson Is there something you need to do, but are afraid to do? Join the club. Everyone fears something. As Shakespeare said, "Madmen have no fears." But as leadership trainer Dale Carnegie so eloquently put it, "Fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind." Do the thing you fear. A new venture? A bold gesture? A big change? The risks you do not take haunt more than the risks you do take. "Do what you fear and fear disappears," advised motivational expert David Joseph Schwartz.  Of course, the advice is easier said than done when fear paralyzes action. Here are some practical steps to overcoming fear: Confront the darn thing. Ask yourself, "Why am I afraid?"  Your answer will help you make the emotion concrete. Find out the source of your fear and think of actions and emotions that will counteract the fear. "Never let the f...

"Believe in life! Always human beings will live and progress to greater, broader, and fuller lives." ~ W.E.B. Du Bois W.E.B. Du Bois African American writer and teacher William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) was born on this day in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, three years after the end of the American Civil War.  He was the most influential black leader of the first half of the 20th century. "One ever feels his twoness—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder," said Du Bois, who was his high school's valedictorian. Educated at Fisk, Harvard, and the University of Berlin, he was an advocate for education and equality. He published The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899), the first case study of a U.S. black community which used ethnography, history, and statistics. In his masterpiece The Souls of Black Fol...

"A seed grows in writing as in Nature." ~ Carson McCullers Carson McCullers Born on this day in Columbus, Georgia, novelist Lula Carson McCullers (1917-67) planted creative seed, calling her inspirations "illumination" and the horrors of her life "night glare." Known for her tales of loneliness and the plight of the eccentric, McCullers moved to New York at 17 and published her first story, Wunderkind two years later. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940) delved into heroine Mick Kelly's struggle with youth and adulthood. This first novel was an overwhelming success, earning McCullers the reputation for writing with insight and sensitivity. She said for the entire first year she worked on the book "without understanding it at all. Each character was talking to a central character, but why, I didn't know," she explained about her interpretation of the complex inner lives of the lonely. At the urging of friend Tennessee Williams, ...

"When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid."  ~ Audre Lorde Powerful poet Audrey Geraldine Lorde (1934-1992) shared her power with others, making the world a better place.  Born on this day in New York City, she was the child of West Indian immigrants and discovered her passion for poetry as a teen. "I loved words," she recalled. "I used to lie awake at night when I was a child and say words, and I used to picture them as waterfalls of light." A person of color fighting for gay and women's rights, Lorde published her first volume of poems, The First Cities , in 1968.  A librarian and a teacher, she once said, "When you reach out and touch other human beings, it doesn’t matter whether you call it therapy or teaching of poetry." Diagnozed with breast cancer, she wrote six months after her radical mastectomy about her experience in The Can...

"If you want to succeed, double your failure rate." ~ Thomas J. Watson Industrialist Thomas J. Watson (1874-1956) born on this date in Campbell, New York. He is best known for building the IBM, International Business Machines Corporation, into the world's largest manufacturer of electric typewriters and data-processing equipment. Under Watson's guidance, IBM became a symbol of the age of information.  "The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas and enthusiasm," he said. Watson joined the fast-growing National Cash Register, NCR, Corporation in 1898 as a salesman and worked his way up the corporate ladder over the next 15 years. "If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work," he believed. With the creation of IBM in 1914, Watson believed a positive attitude and customer service were the keys to success. All salesmen had to...

"God is so big He can cover the whole world with His love, and so small He can curl up inside your heart." ~ June Masters Bacher The spire of Mont-St-Michel's medieval abbey reaches magnificently to heaven. The Benedictine monastery, La Merveille, "The Marvel," is built on a rocky tidal island, ringed by treacherous quicksand and ocean of Normandy, France. Pictures cannot capture the wonder of Mont-St.-Michel, its silhouette against the horizon is too beautiful for words.  The great Gothic church and abbey atop the Mont celebrate architectural divinity and sing of the strength of the spirit. "Mont-St-Michel is a gigantic granite jewel," described author Guy de Maupassant. "Delicate as lace, thronged with towers and slender belfries." Hermits lived on the islet as early as the 6th century. According to legend, in 708, the Archangel Michael in three separate dreams told Aubert, Bishop of Avranches, to build an oratory on th...

"Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory." ~ Susan B. Anthony Courageous women's rights leader Susan Brownell Anthony (1820-1906) was born on this day in South Adams, Massachusetts, the daughter of a successful cotton manufacturer. She fought with passion for suffrage and civil rights. "Independence is happiness," said Anthony, who was raised as a Quaker, a religious group that celebrated freedom. This upbringing propelled her beliefs as she co-founded the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1869. "Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations... can never effect a reform," she said, believing in the importance of economic independence to women's emancipation. "Women must not depend u...

"Infatuation is when you think he's as sexy as Robert Redford, as smart as Henry Kissinger, as noble as Ralph Nader, as funny as Woody Allen, and as athletic as Jimmy Connors. Love is when you realize that he's as sexy as Woody Allen, as smart as Jimmy Connors, as funny as Ralph Nader, as athletic as Henry Kissinger, and nothing like Robert Redford--but you'll take him anyway." ~ Judith Viorst Love is a magical elixir that transforms and heals. Open your heart. Fill every relationship and every aspect of your life with heart-felt affection. With love, you are more vibrantly creative and attractive. "In order to create," explained maestro Igor Stravinsky, "there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love?" Love can make your spirit and mind soar. The passion opens the channels for creativity.  As writer and teacher Leo Buscaglia put it, "We are all angels with but one wing. We fly only when we embrace." ...

"Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own." ~ Chuck Yeager Born on this day in Myra, West Virginia, "Right Stuff" American test pilot Charles "Chuck" Elwood Yeager (1923- ) was the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound. "It opened up the universe," the legend said about his historic flight over the town of Victorville, California in 1947.  His plane, named "Glamorous Glennis" after his wife, was a rocket-powered Bell-X-1 jet, shaped like a bullet and painted brilliant orange for better visibility. "You don't concentrate on risks," said the brave pilot. "You concentrate on results. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done." As a Air Force combat pilot in World War II, the American hero shot down 11 German planes. Featured in Tom Wolf's book, The Right Stuff , Yeager helped train the first astronauts and flew over 100 missions in Vi...

"I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. " ~ Abraham Lincoln Born on this day in Hardin County, Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was named after his grandfather and raised in a log cabin. "All my life," Honest Abe said, "I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind." With only one year of formal education, Lincoln loved books and was accepted to the bar as a self-taught attorney.  He helped form the Illinois Republican party and gained national attention in 1858 with an unsuccessful Senatorial bid against Samuel A. Douglas. "A house divided against itself cannot stand," Lincoln said in one of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates.  "I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free." Elected as the sixteenth President in 1861, Lincoln led the United States through the Civil War...

"How the world perceives you is largely out of your control." ~ Sheryl Crow Born on this day in Kennett, Missouri, singer/songwriter Sheryl Suzanne Crow (1962-) was the third of four children raised in what she described as "a really small Bible Belt town."  Crow was a cheerleader in high school, trained as a classical pianist, taught music, and dreamed of Rock and Roll. "My parents never raised me to believe that there was anything I couldn’t do," she said. "If you are led to chase a career you love, then tenacity is possibly the most important ingredient." In 1986, she moved to Los Angeles and landed jobs singing backup for Michael Jackson, George Harrison, Don Henley, and others.  Her debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club (1993), was breakthrough smash and peaked at No. 3 on The Billboard 2000. The album's hit single, All I Wanna Do , inspired by poet Wyn Cooper, won the Record of the Year Grammy. "Creativity is the pass...

"You must learn to say no when something is not right for you." ~ Leontyne Price Leontyne Price Soprano Leontyne Price (1927-) was born Mary Violet Leontine Price on this day in Laurel, Mississippi.  The first African American opera singer to achieve international fame, she once observed, "Accomplishments have no color." Her dedication to music began with the gift of a piano at age five. "I was center stage," Price remembered, "from the time I received that toy piano... I had the disease then..." Following three years at Julliard School of Music in New York City, she was cast in Virgil Thompson's Broadway opera Four Saints in Three Acts (1952). Two months later she appeared as Bess in an revival of Ira Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Brilliant in Verdi's Aïda and Puccini's Madame Butterfly , she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1961 with Il Trovatore and received a remarkable 42-minute ovation. "Art is th...

"Meaning makes a great many things endurable, perhaps everything." ~ Carl Gustav Jung With Valentine's Day less than a week away, here's your chance to not only send your sweetie flowers, but attach a special meaning to the gift. From the ancient time of King Solomon, the fragrant rose has been the flower of love. The elegant blossom was the signature flower of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. "A rose is a rose is a rose," wrote poet Gertrude Stein as Egypt's Cleopatra (69-30 B.C.) covered her palace floor with rose petals in anticipation of her lover Mark Antony.  Sigmund Freud said that those who dream of red roses have lust on the mind. Bet temptress Cleopatra's petals were deep red. Poet James Boyle O'Reilly wrote, "And the white rose breathes of love; / O, the red rose is a falcon, / And the white rose is a dove." Of course, other bouquets have other meaning. For example, give carnations to someone who fascinates you. G...

"To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead." ~ Thomas Paine Disagreements are a part of every relationship. It's hard enough living with yourself, much less someone else.  Arguments are perfectly normal, but if you must fight, fight fairly. As  American politician  Daniel Webster said, "Keep cool; anger is not argument." Communication and empathy are the keys to conflict resolution. There is no "right" or "wrong" person in an argument. There's just a need for greater understanding, greater forgiveness. We are all SO different. In his book, The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work , psychologist John Gottman studied what he called the "masters and disasters" of marriage. Men are more likely to avoid conflict and refuse to discuss things. Women, on the other hand, want to talk through problems. "Learn to repair and exit the argument," he reco...