Grace All Around You

Here's a quote from Bruce Springsteen. It ran in an 2005 issue of Mojo, an English music magazine -- I'm sorry because I didn't get the month it was published-- in an article by Phil Sutcliffe about the 30th anniversary of Springsteen's album Born To Run:

We live in a tragic world, but there's grace all around you. That's tangible. So you try to attend to the grace.That's how I try to guide my life ... Grace, to me, it's just the events of the day, the living breath of our
lives.

One Way To Determine Quality

If you ever wonder about the mentality of the people around you, please use this old Chinese saying to help you decide:

• Large-minded or great-minded people talk about ideas.
• Medium-minded people talk about events.
• Small-minded people talk about other people.

Confidence

Below is my second commonplace post. It includes four short selections that I found last week, and post here for your illumination.

One
This is a rewording about a couple. It came from a profile in the New Yorker magazine. I eliminated their names because they weren't relevant:

She only had him. With time on her hands and few friends, she gradually became isolated and distraught, depressed at his long absences. Even sleep was hard for her; she relied on sleeping pills to calm herself.

Two
This was in the November 2007 issue of Esquire magazine and is from Dave Grohl, leader of the Foo Fighters and former drummer of Nirvana:

Anybody who has to focus on being real has a problem. It's like having a panic attack over how you're prone to panic attacks.

Three
This one is from the January 2007 issue of Esquire and is by R.J. from Davenport, Iowa:

If you look like Paul Giamatti but carry yourself like you're Brad Pitt, most people will see you as Brad Pitt.

Four
This one is also from the same issue of Esquire as #3. It's from H.V. of Indianapolis:

When you're feeling your worst, your most insecure, write it down. I assure you that no matter how depressed you feel at the time, you won't believe how stupid you'll sound later when you read it back.

Fast, Cheap, And Good

I'll post this saying/old saw/truism/words of wisdom/whatever -- about the quality of a thing or product here:

• If it's fast and cheap, it won't be good;
• If it's cheap and good, it won't be fast;
• If it's fast and good, it won't be cheap.
  

A Few Words On Aging

Today, I will start a new department in my blog. I call it CPP -- short for CommonPlace Post.

It's based on the idea of a commonplace book. A good definition for it is here.

In the past, I had collected things that would've been written in a commonplace book, but I called it a commonplace folder. In the future, I'll post them here for your enlightment and illumination, and also so I can remember them instead of putting them in a drawer.

The first is from an article in the February 2010 issue of Gentleman's Quarterly about Ted Danson, best know for playing Sam Malone in the television sitcom Cheers. He speaks about George Christopher, a magazine editor he portrays in the show Bored to Death, which is broadcast by HBO, and Arthur Frobisher, a rich man he plays on the FX show Damages.

Danson says:

The connection I make between all these characters is that I, Ted, at 62, want to be relevant. My joints hurt. I'm slower. But I remember what it was like to run and play with the boys. I want to be one of the boys. And I think these characters what that, too. George Christopher is suffering all these things -- sadness and decay -- and when you fight aganst that and don't just let gravity pull you down, I think that's fun, too. I think it's fun to see people be so offbase. The 62-year-old man who wants to hand out with the 28-year-old boy and some pot and have a colonic. 'Don't leave me out! Whatever you're doing, I want to be part of it.' I totally identify with that. And it's a little sad and a little sweet and a little funny.

As a man in his middle 50s, I agree very much because it's very true.