9March2010
Posted by Ed Conti under: Humor.
A friend and I were visiting Annapolis. On a tour of the U.S. Naval Academy, we noticed that a handful of students were in the courtyard, on their hands and knees, with pencils and clipboards in hand.
“What are they doing?” my friend asked our tour guide.
“Each year,” he replied with a grin, “the upperclassmen ask the freshmen how many bricks it took to finish this courtyard.”
“So what’s the answer?” my friend asked him when we were out of earshot of the freshmen.
The guide replied simply, “One.”
3March2010
Posted by Ed Conti under: Uncategorized.
“If God granted 60 Minutes an interview, what would he say? When asked what surprises him most about mankind, He says it’s that people are in a rush to grow up and then long to be children again; that they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health. When asked what are the most important lessons of life, he says he’d like people to learn that it takes years to build trust and only a few seconds to destroy it. That a rich person is not the one who has the most but who needs the least. That it’s not enough to forgive others. People must also learn to forgive themselves.”
2March2010
Posted by Ed Conti under: Uncategorized.
Each morning we are born again.
What we do today is what matters most.
-Buddha
This is the beginning of a new day.
You have been given this day to use as you will.
You can waste it or use it for good.
What you do today is important
because you are exchanging
a day of your life for it.
When tomorrow comes,
this day will be gone forever;
in its place is something
that you have left behind…
…let it be something good.
-unknown
28February2010
Posted by Ed Conti under: Uncategorized.
By Henry F. Kletzing and Elmer L. Kletzing, 1899
“How do you know there is a kite in the air?” said a man to a boy who was holding a string leading skyward. “I see nothing and you see nothing.” “But I feel it pull!” was the prompt reply.
So with many unseen influences coming from various sources. We cannot explain their origin, but somehow they mold and shape our lives; somehow we feel them pull our hearts upward and onward. Read the rest of this entry »
27February2010
Posted by Ed Conti under: Perspective; Uncategorized.
Peeking out from the corner of my desk blotter is a note, slowly yellowing and bent from time. It is a card from my mother, containing only four sentences. In it, she praises my abilities as a writer without qualification.
Each sentence is full with love, offering specific examples of what my pursuit has meant to her and my father. The word “but” never appears on the card, however the word “and” is there almost a half dozen times.
Every time I read it — which is almost every day – am reminded to ask myself if I am doing the same thing for my daughters. I’ve asked myself how many times I’ve “but-ted” them, and me, out of happiness. I hate to say that it’s more often than I’d like to admit. Read the rest of this entry »
27February2010
Posted by Ed Conti under: Be There; Uncategorized.
Years ago a John Hopkin's professor gave a group of graduate
students this assignment: Go to the slums. Take 200 boys,
between the ages of 12 and 16, and investigate their background
and environment. Then predict their chances for the future.
The students, after consulting social statistics, talking to the boys,
and compiling much data, concluded that 90 percent of the boys
would spend some time in jail. Read the rest of this entry »
27February2010
Posted by Ed Conti under: Uncategorized.
If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn;
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight;
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy;
If a child lives with shame, he learns to feel guilty;
If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient;
If a child lives with encouragement, he learns confidence;
If a child lives with praise, he learns to appreciate;
If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice;
If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith;
If a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself;
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, he learns to find
love in the world.
-- Dorothy Law Holte
8February2010
Posted by Ed Conti under: Uncategorized.
10 Reason Not to Wash
In one church, the pastor, apparently fed up with all the excuses given over the years as to why people don’t go to church, included “Ten Reasons Why I Never Wash” in the Sunday bulletin:
1. I was forced to as a child.
2. People who wash are hypocrites — they think they are cleaner than everybody else.
3. There are so many different kinds of soap, I can’t decide which one is best.
4. I used to wash, but I got bored and stopped.
5. I wash only on special occasions, like Christmas and Easter.
6. None of my friends wash.
7. I’ll start washing when I get older and dirtier.
8. I can’t spare the time.
9. The bathroom is never warm enough in winter or cool enough in summer.
10. People who make soap are only after your money.
8February2010
Posted by Ed Conti under: Uncategorized.
The World Belongs to Those Who Hustle
We get a lot of emails from men lamenting the fact that they feel stuck in neutral and asking for advice. Many of these men have great aspirations, but that’s all they have. Aspirations. Many don’t have any results to show for all their ambitious goals in life. Some are on year seven of a four year degree, and others are stuck in a job that’s going nowhere. Maybe you know a man like this. Heck, maybe you feel like this.
Unfulfilled goals, of couse, can lead to Read the rest of this entry »
2December2009
Posted by Ed Conti under: Faith.
LOVE LAYS BARE
It was a bitterly cold Christmas eve in Korea in 1952. A pregnant young mother, Bak Yoon, hobbled through the snow toward the home of a missionary friend where she knew she could find help. Tears of sorrow froze on her face as she mourned her husband. He had recently been killed in the Korean War, and she had no one else to turn to. A short way down the road from her missionary friend’s house was a deep gully spanned by a bridge. As Bak Yoon stumbled forward, birth pains suddenly overcame her. She fell, Read the rest of this entry »
