Up Word Call

Modern day parables from the desk of Scott Davis

[upwordcall]

Some ships sail east, and some sail west, By the selfsame winds that blow. It's the set of the sails and not the gales That determines the way they go! -Anonymous

[upwordcall]

Poetry

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering – these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love – these are what we stay alive for.”

Robin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014)

[upwordcall]

Not Your Children

"Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They came through you but not from you. And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you, For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.” - Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese-U.S. poet and painter

[upwordcall]

Our Deepest Fear Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson

[upwordcall]

A Weak Mind

"A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones." —Lord Chesterfield

[upwordcall]

Horace Silver 1928-2014

“I personally do not believe in politics, hatred or anger in my musical composition,” he wrote in the liner notes to his album “Serenade to a Soul Sister” in 1968. “Musical composition should bring happiness and joy to people and make them forget their troubles.” Horace Silver

Horace Silver, a pianist, composer and bandleader who was one of the most popular and influential jazz musicians of the 1950s and ’60s, died on Wednesday at his home in New Rochelle, N.Y. He was 85.

His death was announced by Blue Note Records, the company for which he recorded from 1952 to 1979.

[upwordcall]

There is no poverty that can overtake diligence. -Japanese proverb

[upwordcall]

Priorities

A boat docked in a tiny village. A rich tourist complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them. Not very long, answered the fisherman. But then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?? asked the businessman The fisherman explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family. The businessman asked, But what do you do with the rest of your time?? I sleep, fish a little, play with my children, and spend some time with my wife. In the evenings, I go into town to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs. I have a full life. The businessman interrupted, I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat. And after that? asked the fisherman. With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Los Angeles, or New York City ! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise. How long would that take? asked the fisherman. Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years, replied the businessman . And after that?? Afterwards? Well my friend, that’s when it gets really interesting, answered the businessman, laughing. When your business gets really big, you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions! Millions? Really? And after that?? asked the fisherman. After that you’ll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep later, play with your children, catch a few fish,spend some time with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends. The moral of this story ? Know where you’re going in life. You may already have the important things.

[upwordcall]

Happy 4th of July

”Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one” — Benjamin Franklin

[upwordcall]

Real Music

"Music is the silence between the notes." Achille-Claude Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) French composer.

[upwordcall]

All progress, isn’t forward progress. Scott

[upwordcall]

The Taj Mahal is a True Love Story

The Taj Mahal is a true love story brought to life as a building. During the Mughal Empire, Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal for his lovely wife, Mumtaz Mahal, whose real name was Arjumand Begum. She died after the birth of her fourteenth child. This white domed building is a mausoleum for Mumtaz Mahal. Her body was placed in the subordinate room and later Shah Jahan was laid to rest there. Taj Mahal means ”Crown Palace.”

I’m currently in India and I’m reminded daily the most powerful force we have in the universe is love. It will leave an indelible impression, an irreversible condition, a lasting legacy. Scott

[upwordcall]

A Fathers Wisdom

A young woman brings her fiancee, home to meet her parents. After dinner, her mother tells her father to find out about the young man, so the father invites the fiancee to his study for a drink.

"So what are your plans?" the father asks the young man. "I am a Torah scholar," he replies. "A Torah scholar. Hmmm," the father says. "Admirable, but what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter to live in, as she’s accustomed to?" “I will study,” the young man replies, “and God will provide for us.”

"And how will you buy her a beautiful engagement ring, such as she deserves?" asks the father. "I will concentrate on my studies," the young man replies, "God will provide for us."

"And children?" asks the father. "How will you support children?" “Don’t worry, sir, God will provide,” replies the fiancee.

The conversation proceeds like this, and each time the father questions, the young idealist insists that God will provide.

Later, the mother asks, “How did it go, Honey?”, and the father answers, “He has no job and no plans, but the good news is he thinks I’m God.” -unknown

[upwordcall]

Free Will

"We must believe in free will. We have no choice." — Isaac B. Singer

[upwordcall]

Love Songs

"We must always remember that a thing need not be transient because it was written to meet an immediate situation. All the great love songs of the world were written for one person, but they live on for the whole of mankind." William Barclay  

[upwordcall]

Dancing Makes You Smile

Babies innately respond to rhythm more than speech, according to a new study that found dancing comes naturally to infants.Researchers in Britain and Finland tested the responses of 120 babies ages 5months to 2 years and found that infants are much more physically responsive to music than to speech and find it more engaging.

“Our research suggests that it is the beat rather than other features of the music, such as the melody, that produces the response in infants,”

The findings suggest humans may be born with a predisposition to move rhythmically in response to music. “It remains to be understood why humans have developed this particular predisposition,” Zentner said. “One possibility is that it was a target of natural selection for music or that it has evolved for some other function that just happens to be relevant for music processing.”

Zentner and Tuomas Eerola of Finland’s University of Jyvasklya also found that the more the babies’ movements were synchro-nized to the music, the more they smiled.

2010 AOL Inc.

[upwordcall]

Curtis Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999)

Our purpose is to educate as well as to entertain. Painless preaching is as good a term as any for what we do. If you’re going to come away from a party singing the lyrics of a song, it is better that you sing of self-pride like ‘We’re a Winner’ instead of ‘Do the Boo-ga-loo!’

As quoted in The Sociology of Rock (1978) by Simon Frith ISBN 0094602204