Get a Life!

The following is from Pulitzer Prize winning author Anna Quindlen's commencement address to Villanova University, Friday 23 June 2000. My childhood buddies Murali, Venkatesh, and Emani went to Villanova and I had an opportunity of visiting them and their beautiful campus about 8 years ago. I enjoyed reading this commencement address.

It's a great honor for me to be the third member of my family to receive an honorary doctorate from this great university. It's an honor to follow my great Uncle Jim, who was a gifted physician, and my Uncle Jack, who is a remarkable businessman. Both of them could have told you something important about their professions, about medicine or commerce.

I have no specialized field of interest or expertise, which puts me at a disadvantage talking to you today. I'm a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know.

Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work. The second is only part of the first. Don't ever forget what a friend once wrote Senator Paul Tsongas when the senator decided not to run for re-election because he had been diagnosed with cancer: "No man ever said on his deathbed, 'I wish I had spent more time at the office."

Don't ever forget the words my father sent me on a was gunned down in the driveway of the Dakota: "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."

You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree; there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living.

But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on a bus, or in a car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account but your soul.

People don't talk about the soul very much anymore. It's so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is a cold comfort on a winter night, or when you're sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you've gotten back the test results and they're not so good.

Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cutout.

But I call them on the phone, and I meet them for lunch. I would be rotten, or at best mediocre at my job, if those other things were not true.

You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are. So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house. Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast? Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze over Seaside Heights, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over the water or the way a baby scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a Cheerio with her thumb and first finger.

Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter.

Get a life in which you are generous. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money you would have spent on beer and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a Big Brother or to live many years ago. Something really, really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my druthers, it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all: I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that life is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get.

I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned.

By telling them this: Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby's ear. Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived.

Why Danes are Smug?

Danes are unrivalled in satisfaction with life. The University of Leicester recently published the World Map of Happiness with Denmark as number one. For more than 30 years this country with five million inhabitants has ranked first in Eurobarometer surveys. More than two thirds of Danes are "very satisfied" with their lives according to these surveys. In no other Eurobarometer country has this proportion exceeded a half, and for most of the countries the proportion is less than a third....

BMJ hypothesized the following as the top three reasons for this unusual happiness of Danes.

Hair colour—It may indeed be the case that "blondes have more fun." This hypothesis was launched in the 1950s by a commercial slogan for a hair dye and was cemented in popular culture in 1978 by rock musician Rod Stewart's album of the same title. Sweden, however, has a higher prevalence of blondes than Denmark.1

Genes—Genetic factors might influence differences in life satisfaction within a country,2 and Danes might have a special genetic constitution. Genotypes in Sweden, however, are similar to those in Denmark because most Swedes were Danes until the 17th century.

Food—Meals in Denmark can be politely described as unmemorable. "Danish cuisine" is an oxymoron, except perhaps the open faced "butter breads" that accompany the beer and aquavit Danes consume for lunch. Older Danes satisfy their hunger with potatoes, gravy, and a bit of pork, and younger ones devour hotdogs, hamburgers, and Baltic-style pizzas. Danish cuisine has some similarities with food from Switzerland and Austria, the second and third happiest nations according to the World Map of Happiness; this suggests that the consumption of comfort foods may be important for life satisfaction.

Finally, here is the Map of World Happiness published by the University of Leicester. I see that we Indians are not as happy as some others. But one (positive) way to look at it is, we (among others) are neither happy nor unhappy - a quality of a Karma Yogi?!

Nightmare for the Minuteman

Reader's Digest gathered that there are 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States now, with estimated 700,000 illegal aliens entering every year, mainly across the Mexican border! I heard that this (Spring season) is a busy time for the Coyotes! No wonder that hardly anyone knows about the 65,000 quota for annual H1-B Visas! I came across this interesting proposal that is being considered by Mexico.

MEXICO CITY - Mexican officials are studying the possibility of giving global positioning systems to migrants thinking about crossing the border into the United States. Supporters of the idea say they could be used to help the Border Patrol agents locate migrants in trouble. Hundreds of Mexicans are killed each year trying to sneak illegally into the United States. Some drown, while others die in the heat.

A Mexican university is developing the locators, which would be given to migrants for free. U.S. officials haven't signed off on the plan. Anti-immigration groups have criticized similar efforts to help migrants, but Mexican officials deny it will encourage illegal migration.

Source: thebta.org

I believe that illegal immigration at this scale is negatively affecting the US economy. Some argue that the illegal workers take up only those jobs that the Americans refuse to do. I don't think so. I think that the illegal immigrants have glutted the labor market and drove the wages down significantly. So, if someone wants to take up a job say in crop picking or a meat processing plant, they should be prepared to reduce their living standard significantly.

A small example? Cheapest haircut used to cost around $11 in Austin a few years ago. Now, I see signs that say haircuts from $5.50 and up. Think of a hair stylist who bought a house with a 30-yr mortgage, assuming that he/she would be making at least $15/hr (on an average)?

I will agree if someone says that illegal immigration is OK from humanitarian stand point - giving hard working people a chance to better their lives. But I find it hard to accept if someone says that illegal immigration is good for the economy. Sure, we may pay a few dollars less for a haircut but we get shafted with higher taxes that are needed to provide health care and education to the people who don't pay taxes (mostly, illegal immigrants).

A Random quote: The main goal of the future is to stop violence. The world is addicted to it. - Bill Cosby

Austin Hindu Temple Opened

Gettysburg Address

Today is Abraham Lincoln's birthday. Thought of blogging his eloquently put Gettysburg address. About three years ago, Rama and I visited the State House in Vandalia, Illinois where Abraham Lincoln started his political career as a state representative. It was a wonderful experience.

The Gettysburg Address is the most famous speech of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and one of the most quoted speeches in United States history.[1] It was delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863, during the American Civil War, four and a half months after the Battle of Gettysburg.

Lincoln's carefully crafted address, secondary to other presentations that day, came to be regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American history. In fewer than 300 words delivered in just over two minutes, Lincoln invoked the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence and redefined the Civil War as a struggle not merely for the Union, but as "a new birth of freedom" that would bring true equality to all of its citizens.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Source: Wikipedia

The Old Man, the Boy, and their Donkey

There was an old man, a boy, and a donkey. They were going to town and it was decided that the boy should ride. As they went along they passed some people who thought that it was a shame for the boy to ride and the old man to walk. The old man and boy decided that maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions. Later, they passed some more people who thought that it was a real shame for that man to make such a small boy walk.

The two decided that may be they both should walk. Soon they passed some more people who thought that it was stupid to walk when they had a donkey to ride. The man and the boy decided maybe the critics were right so, they decided that they both should ride.

They soon passed other people who thought that it was a shame to put such a load on a poor little animal. The old man and the boy decided that may be the critics were right, so they decided to carry the donkey. As they crossed a bridge they lost their grip on the animal and he fell into the river and drowned.

The moral of the story: If you try to please everyone, you will eventually lose your ass. People will talk ... let them ... You LIVE FOR YOURSELF !

Source: Geocities

Salutation of the Dawn

Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the
Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived makes
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!

Author: Kalidasa
Source: Thinkexist