Lonely Cottage

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  “Among the few features of agricultural England which retain an appearance but little modified by the lapse of centuries, may be reckoned the high, grassy and furzy downs, coombs, or ewe-leases, as they are indifferently called, that fill a large area of certain counties in the south and south-west. If any mark of human occupation is met with hereon, it usually takes the form of the solitary cottage of some shepherd. Fifty years ago such a lonely cottage stood on such a down, and may possibly be standing there now. In spite of its loneliness, however, the spot, by actual measurement, was not more than five miles from a county-town. Yet that affected it little. Five miles of irregular upland, during the long inimical seasons, with their sleets, snows, rains, and mists, afford withdrawing space enough to isolate a Timon or a Nebuchadnezzar; much less, in fair weather, to please that less repellent tribe, the poets, philosophers, artists, and others who “conceive and meditate of ple...

Frame Of Mind

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"Consider thus: Your are an old man; no longer yourself be enslaved by this any longer (and) no longer be pulled by the strings like a puppet by every impulse, and stop complaining about your present fortune or dreading the future." (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.2)

One of our Trustees here at the University is the CEO of Krispy Kreme Donuts. Do you know what that means? Well, if you were on campus the other day, you most likely would have been standing in line for your Hot and Fresh prior to Chapel. I mean that's the rule, right? When donuts are present, you MUST eat them. Right? I didn't. 

Don't get me wrong, but just because they are hot and melty and have the tendency to just melt on the tip of your tongue does not mean that one MUST have one just because it's there. Of course someone might say, "do you do the same with chocolate chip cookie dough?" We're not talking about cookie dough. We're talking about donuts. We're talking about frame of mind. 

Let's say you are talking with someone and they say something disagreeable. Do you eventually find yourself arguing and wonder "how did this start" but it's too late to change anything? Why or how did we learn the habit of feeling obligated to prove we are right about anything? Why do we get angry if someone does something we don't like? The point is: we don't have to! 

Something bad happens: why worry? Why get sad? Somebody's bound to have it worse. The Masai tribesmen who donated 14 head of cattle to the City of New York in response to the disaster of 9/11 understood this.

We like it when good things happen--we like to feel good. But one thing unexpected happens and we're like


Why do we do this to ourselves? 

Check how you think and feel.
Are those feelings/thoughts appropriate for what is happening?
Do they fit the situation at all?




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