Tuesday, April 12, 2005

So I'm reading...

...You Can Do It! The Merit Badge Handbook for Grown-Up Girls by Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas c. 2003 Herter Studio LLC  ISBN 0-8118-4635-0  $24.95

This is a cool book that encourages you in how do to all sorts of things from sewing to fire-walking.  I'm digging it.

Rather than relate the poignant story of the author or go into detail about what it says, I only wish to share a few quotes from within it's pages.

"All serious daring starts from within." -- Eudora Welty

"Get busy living or get busy dying." -- a line from the film "The Shawshank Redemption"

"The weakest of all weak things is a virtue which has not been tested in fire." -- Mark Twain

The author of the segment on firewalking, Heather Ash Amara, states, "Your fundamental belief dating from each childhood that to touch fire equals getting burned will be shattered.  This leads to a reexamination of virtually everything else we think is true or inevitable."

I think I don't need to walk on fire to test the validity of theories.  I have had homosexuality for that.  Still...  like sky-diving... I might try it sometime.  Maybe.  Especially if I don't have to pay.

By the way, the coals are 1200 degrees Fahrenheit.

The book also includes one of my favorite quotes from Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers: "Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes."

I have yet to finish the book.  I am sure that more gems lie within it's pages.  It did inspire the blog that I am about to write.

 

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