I don’t write in a journal everyday, but I have accumulated many entries over the past 50+ years beginning in 1966. Some items evolved into longer works. Among the leftovers little pieces survived. I thought a collection of these with a piece culled from the same date in a past year would make an interesting yearbook. The consistencies and inconsistencies of mind, skipping back and forth across time, provide varied perspectives. It is difficult to remember the context of the past we’ve lived; we also make suppositions about times that predate ourselves.

The few alterations from original drafts were to improve clarity. The worst of my work is not included. There remains enough mediocrity and immaturity to make me feel humble and you feel smart. There are also moments of accidental insight and incidental humor.

Author Stephen Crane referred to his little pieces as pills…apparently they were small and somewhat hard to swallow, but good for you.


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Thursday, October 18, 2018

If you work hard at having a peaceful life


October 18, 2017  (I was 72)

If you work hard at having a peaceful life
work through conflict with compromise
sell at a fair price and buy at the same
give away knowledge for friendship
praise skill wherever you encounter it
try to find comfort in humility
recognize the grief in others’ loss
share what you have before it spoils
make no commitments you cannot keep
fulfill promises with dedicated effort
your life will lack the drama people read about
and you’ll be granted the joys of anonymity
by other anonymous persons
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