The following are quotations artfully copied on a shoe box and given to me in celebration of my high school graduation by my sister, Cindy. The box itself was rescued for me from the trash by my daughter, Liz. Cindy’s been gone now for 25 years this month, and she’s still passing on advice. Thank you, Cindy, you Hoggy Dah. And thank you Liz.
Neither high nor very far,
Neither emperor nor king,
You are only a little milestone,
Which stands at the edge of the highway.
To people passing by
You point the right direction
And stop them from getting lost.
You tell them of the distance
For which they still must journey.
Your service is not a small one,
And people will always remember you.
– Ho Chi Minh
Once we begin not to worry about the kind of house we live in, what clothes we are wearing–once we give up the stupid recreation of this world, we have time, which is priceless, to remember wthat we are our brother’s keeper and that we must not only care for his needs as far as we are able immediately, but we must try to build a better world.
–Dorothy Day
There is in all things an inexhuastible sweetness and purity, a silence that is the fountain of action and joy. It rises up in wordless gentleness and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being…
–Thomas Merton
I believe it is foolish to believe.
–An old testament scholar, Cindy, June 1970
I write sometimes to help myself think.
–Cindy, May 1977
I write to exorcise, not express.
–Cindy, May 1977
Dummy why did you look on the bottom of the box? Nobody put anything there.
–Anonymous