life is changing... @enteperceptions - Tumblr Blog

I WOULD RATHER BE A TEACHER

I would rather be a teacher than a salesman. Though a salesman makes a lot more money than I do, I would not change places with him. For he sells washing machines and fountain pens and cars and other material things, but I sell ideas.

I would rather be a teacher than a stenographer, even though a stenographer may have a mahogany desk in the magnificent offices of some great chief of industry. For he helps write letters, but I help write careers. He touches keys, but I touch lives.

I would rather be a teacher than an architect, satisfactory as the program of large constructions might be. For an architect helps build edifices, but I help build character. Edifices endure for a time, but character endures throughout eternity.

I would rather be a teacher than an artist, fascinating as that subject might be in its wealth of beauty, color, and symmetry. For an artist paints pictures on canvas, but I paint pictures on the memories of little children. An artist makes impressions on tablets of clay, but I make impressions on the soul.

I would rather be a teacher than a bookkeeper; for he balances accounts but I help balance lives.

I would rather be a teacher than a great business executive; for he works with facts and figures and lifeless coins, but I work with minds that open, futures that unfold and principles that grow.

I would rather be a teacher than an accomplished musician; for a musician plays on violin strings and piano strings but I play on heartstrings.I would rather be a teacher than an orator; for an orator stirs adults to applause and admiration, but I stir little children to right choosing and noble thinking.

I would rather be a teacher than a decorator; for he deals with perspective and harmony and line in buildings and rooms. But I deal with perspective andharmony and line in temples not made with hands.

I would rather be a teacher than a potter; for he shapes vessels of clay, but I shape destinies.

I would rather be a teacher than an interpreter; for he interprets words and ideas, but I interpret motives and purposes and endeavors.

I would rather be a teacher than an archeologist; for he unearths buried treasures, but I unearth talents.

I would rather be a teacher than an explorer; for he explores uncharted seas, but I explore uncharted minds, discover treasure islands and continents of untold possibilities.

I would rather be a teacher than a statesman; for he deals with finished citizens, but I deal with future citizen.

I would rather be a teacher than a scientist; for he studies the wonders of the rocks and the beauty of the stars, and the miracle of the plants, and the glory of the skies. I deal with that which is still more miraculous in throbbing human hearts, unfolding human lives, and the formation of lifetime characters.

Happy Teachers’ Day :)

*The poem was written by Zachrisch, Elva on October 1958.

pollgold

“Evidently, evildoing also has a threshold magnitude. Yes, a human being hesitates and bobs back and forth between good and evil all his life. He slips, falls back, clambers up, repents, things begin to darken again. But just so long as the threshold of evildoing is not crossed, the possibility of returning remains, and he himself is still within reach of our hope. But when, through the density of evil actions, the result either of their own extreme danger or of the absoluteness of his power, he suddenly crosses that threshold, he has left humanity behind, and without, perhaps, the possibility of return.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (via pollgold)

sciencesourceimages

PALE BLUE DOT

by Carl Sagan

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

Hear ‘Pale Blue Dot’ as recited by Carl Sagan

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Happy & Safe 2017 from Science Source!

hellanne

Far too many people are looking for the right person, instead of trying to be the right person.

(via bangbangmybabyshotme)

phazn

eclypxe

paradoxicalissue

fluentlyfaithless-deactivated20

Enough with the number games. What was one hundred, one thousand, one million first was one. Remember that behind the number is an individual. Behind that individual there is a family and there are friends. Behind them there is us. We are not as separate from each other as we believe. We are all one of millions. Don’t look at Srebrenica and see a number, or a foreigner, or a nation, or a faith - look towards Srebrenica and see a human. See a father. See a son. See a loved one. That is what they were. That is what they are. They are us. Pray for those lost.