*blush*
Truly the greatest compliment in my entire life is to be compared to Henry. I can think of no other sentiment that honors me more.
*pssst* my birthday is tomorrow!!! (grin)

Sorry, Stevie!! I got mixed up ’cause the holiday!

My motto is: “Love. And be your best.”

It directs and drives everything I do.

Stevie’s quote reminds me of something Huck Finn says in Huckleberry Finn. (Warning in advance, I probably haven’t understood what she has to say completely, but disagree with it for some reasons) When Miss Watson tells him about praying, he understands that she means that you can pray for something and get it and she has to re-explain it as spiritual gifts. She tells him what she means by saying “I must help other people and do everything I could for other people and look out for them all the time and never think about myself…I went out in woods and turned it over in my head a long time but I couldn’t see no advantage about it except for other people” (I have the book in front of me). Elevating/empowering other people when you want to do that for yourself has a similar feeling to it. I think that her pointing out that the sort of things women do in jealousy or insecurity ultimately falsely elevates them is interesting. Nonetheless, I’m not sure how elevating every Jack you meet on the street, even one you don’t like, really contributes to one’s growth as an individual and how to empower others remains a mystery. Maybe in the way that Stevie says, at least we are turning a bad impulse into something good, but does the impulse remain? There is a selfish element and definitely an arbitrary one in doing for others in this way, such as she describes here as facilitating one’s own growth. I also think that wanting to feel superior or elevate oneself is a legitimate and complicated concern. The sickness ultimately lies in the self, being unsatisfied with the way one is in comparison to other people and the problem is that subtly or overtly we are hurting others and foisting our own problems on them. So she changes the way we go about it. I think that most people move toward empowering themselves rather than other people no matter how hard they try to do for others as much as they can. I personally find serving everybody pretty satisfying, but frequently, empowering others all the time does detriment to yourself, although I don’t completely understand what empowering is anyway. If she means helping someone in a significant way, that can frequently result in serious detriment to oneself, like if I was to teach an unemployed person how to get a post underneath mine and they were instead offered the opportunity to take my job. I don’t know if I agree with her completely and think that the complexity of the reasons women do dark things should be honored, although it is legitimate for them to turn their thoughts and impulses to a way that doesn’t hurt others or themselves although sometimes hurting others is okay and necessary. Regardless, I hope you have a great birthday, Stevie.

Happy Birthday, Stevie! (And on the right day, too, since I’m late. hehe)

That’s all. I don’t have guiding principles or quotes, I just go out there and do it, so I don’t think I have much else to contribute here.

As for guiding principles to live by, I have 2: Nothing lasts forever, and the most important quality to have in this life is to have a kind heart. Everything else falls into place after that…

It helps me to remember to “Let go and let God” when necessary! Otherwise, it is the four L’s: “Live, Learn, Laugh, and Love.”