Passionate words but cold deeds

Got frustrated lately.  Not because the unrelenting amount of emails or the work during the bitter midnight, it is because people talk passionately but behave otherwise.  I don't know how should I react.  Should I pretend I appreciate the words even I know they are hollow?   Should I mock their passion and enrage them? Sigh.  I only nod slightly and see them going down their shallow pretense.

Powerful Quotes that Speak to Me

Went to quite a few parties these days. It seems to be a season of philanthropy activities. Got a few quotes and jokes. Some of them are actually from Fang's video games. 

"Come back with your shield, or on it." - Spartan mothers to their waring sons

"I expect it will be hard; I expect it will be done." - Japanese Shogun games 

"And whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty's lamp guiding your steps and opportunity's arm steadying your way." Reagan, 1992 

“It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; Who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt Speech at the Sorbonne April 23, 1910

"Go big or go home." - yours truly.

Obsessed with finishing emails

The emails are just piling up.  Whenever there is an opening in the schedule, I spent in on answering emails.  Often at the expense of doing something important but not urgent.  Need to develop the discipline of only spending limited, efficient time on emails.  Maybe just one hour in the morning for CSU and one hour at night, after completing other scheduled tasks.

Learn not to worry about things I can't control

I've worried last few weeks.  About so many things.  At first was running the innovation workshop in China, the invitation came too late so I had to decline.  Then is the ski trip and the weather; my right knee; the keynote speech at Defense Language Institute; the refinancing; the BPPE; the tires on the Lexus; the international recruitment plan; the online master degrees; hiring faculty, Brian leaving the country; the StartupWeekend, ..... too many to-dos, inspirations, wants, greeds, ambitions, and too little time, resource and talent.  Sigh.

Have to plan, execute, review.  But the more challenging one is how not to be worried and depressed about things that is out of my control.  Since there is not much I can do about them, worrying does not produce any results.

Hopefully the weather will turn nicer so I can ride my bike more, that is a proven method to reduce stress.

All we need

According to Cicero,  if you have a garden and a library,  you have everything you need.

When there is no human left to hear, is music still beautiful?

HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH

The book turn out to be much more academic than I would like.  Skidelsky spent a lot of pages on establishing the prior scholar conclusin.

Still early in the book so I am hopeful.  My pessimistic hunch is that human nature have precluded there is a limited of desire.  So it will never be enough. 

Keynes assume by 2030 the west will be so productive that the average work hour is 15 per week.  But it is completely wrong in the US and most of the world except old Europe.   For better or for worse, the US and East Asia, work is not only for earning a living.  Long hours is a status symbol,  a badge of honor, a self-imposed lifestyle.  The poor are jobless, the rich work 70 hours a week.  So it completely defy Keynes' predictions.

Peaceful at the office

The campus is quiet, since most faculty and staff are still on vacation.  After a few days break, I felt restless at home, even at the home study.   Biking to campus this morning, I felt good.  There is strange peace in me sitting in my office working away.  No sure it is good :(

Wrote this to my contacts: Looking forward to 365 fun days of working and learning with you! Happy 2013!

From ordinary to special world

They can't be more different.  Our hero is doing just fine in the mundum ordinary world.  But there is a slight stir foreshadows the internal challenge and the external enemy that will draw the hero to a new world, in which he will be tormented and he will stare death in the eyes - and we will follow him to concur the beast and the internal demon - in the special world.

Hero

We all think of heros as strong and brave.   But these qualities are secondary to sacrifice.   We admire hero's because their willingness to give up something dearly to them, perhaps even their lives, for an ideal or a group.

The heros earn their magic power through learning, sacrifice and commitment.   When the training is over, they suddenly realize their magic power is not the fantastic sword, but the ability to learn,  sacrifice and commit.

The hero and the ordeal

Our hero must die.  Or appear to die so that he can be born again.  The liveliness is depressed so it can be revived again.  So the world can fill the elation and exhilaration with our hero.  He has never felt more alive when he was looking at death in the eyes.  The ordeal is an absolutely crucial part of the hero's journey.

There must be a truth

I cannot help but believe that there is a truth, somewhere, somehow, as an eternal reality, a Platonic ideal form, a devine model.  From it, infinitely intricate variations can be generated, each resonating with the essential spirit of the truth.

I cannot help but believe that there is a devine mandate on me, someday, somewhere it will be clearly revealed. At that time I will be completely clear that all the struggle, tears, laughter, triumph and dispair  are part of the holly plan to support and shape me for that mission.

- reading "Writer's Journey" by Vogler