Maybe as Walt Kelly wrote, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

Things are easier if we don't have to take responsibility for our situation - if it's him or her or them that cause us to be poor, unhappy, stressed, or whatever - we can avoid the hard work of creating positive change.

That holds true for individuals as well as countries - having an enemy is necessary to maintain the charade that the situation we are in isn't because of what we do, but because of what someone else does.

Unfortunately the speech was undermined slightly by an Urban Legend that sprung up that the phrase "Ich bin ein Berliner!" did not mean JFK was proud to be a citizen of Berlin on that day, but rather he was proud to be a jelly doughnut.

Turns out that is not the case - citizens of Berlin do refer to themselves as Berliners, and the phrase was grammatically correct. It's a weird urban legend that found it's way into the New York Times and into popular culture.

Dal, Chilean Style

3 cups of lentils
2 cups of chopped potatoes
2 chopped carrots
3 chopped tomatoes
1 hot pepper
1 small onion chopped
2 gloves garlic chopped
16 ounces tomato sauce
1 tsp cumin
a little beer or sherry
a little red vinegar
olive oil
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
salt and pepper

1. Soak and cook lentils till soft. Drain and rinse, set aside.
2. Sautee onions, garlic, hot pepper, and cumin in olive oil. Add beer or sherry.
3. Add potatoes and carrots, cover with water, bring to boil.
4. Add tomatoes and cook till potatoes are soft.
5. Add lentils and tomato sauce.
6. Salt and pepper to taste. (I sometimes add more water or beer if it's too thick, or vinegar if it's too sweet.) Add more cumin or hot sauce if you like it really spicy.
7. Throw in the cilantro, take if off the heat. Serve after a few minutes.

We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.

From inward/outward an ongoing, online conversation sponsored by Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC.

Maybe it's my age or my chubby fingers but I can't imagine typing a 300 page novel on a cell phone. The young woman who wrote one of these novels finished it in 19 days and says she can type faster on a cell phone than a keyboard.

Cell phone novels came about after Japanese cell phone companies began offering unlimited packet data and became popular with young women who grew up using cell phones more than personal computers.

The New York Times covered this story today at Thumbs Race as Japan’s Best Sellers Go Cellular - New York Times, the New Yorker covered it in the December 22nd edition Letter from Japan: I ♥ Novels: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker.and Wired covered it in January 2007 Big Books Hit Japan's Tiny Phones

Victor Frankl

I'll probably hang up soon because I have other things to do.

“I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.”

Mahatma Gandhi

He reiterates John Kennedy's statement that we should never negotiate out of fear but we should never fear to negotiate, and the fallacy that refusing to talk to our enemies makes us look "tough", when it actually makes us look arrogant.

His tone is very good - reassuring, inclusive and hopeful.

He talks about the importance of early childhood education, K-12 and the importance of teachers and rewarding them for being great by paying them higher salaries and making college more affordable.

I just think it's cool that he can articulate so many intelligent thoughts on a broad range of topics, with such ease - we need a smart guy like that in office.

Just thought you might like to know.