“You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax, all you need is a book.”
Dr. Seuss
I always enjoyed children’s books. Not just Dr. Seuss but Erich Kästner, Maurice Sendak, Hans Fischer, Eric Carlé, and of course, Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler who wrote and illustrated The Gruffalo.
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“Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other people’s countries, and keep them from grabbing slices of his. And in the intervals between campaigns, he washes the blood off his hands and works for the universal brotherhood of man, with his mouth.”
Mark Twain, On the Damned Human Race
Mark Twain’s description was pretty much true for central Europe at the time he was writing (published in 1905). The Franco-Prussian war was just over 30 years ago, the first world war was about a decade away. The flag waving soldier overlooking the town square in Weinheim embodied that spirit.
The flag flying above the castle ruin (in the photo above) is the white and blue of the town. Ever since world war II Germans have had an ambivalent relationship with all things national, and that includes the flag. Not the enthusiastic display of the national colours one finds in the US, in France, in Italy … This has changed to some extent since unification. The football world championship in 2006 and the joyous atmosphere of that event changed a lot of these feelings. As a result, sometimes the white and blue on top of Castle Windeck is replaced by the black, red and gold. For the record: I prefer the white and blue.
And for good measure, my posting yesterday in response to the Ragtag Daily Prompt has a few more flags to show: Chauvinism.
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“We are all worms, But I do believe that I am a glow worm.”
Winston S. Churchill, Never Give In! The Best of Winston Churchill’s Speeches
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A flower doesn’t not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms.
anon.
Wednesday Quotes: Pink Flowers
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to catch him. At least if they believe Zeno.
Zeno thought of the Achilles paradox. If a faster runner is trying to overtake a slower runner in front of him, he will first have to move to the midpoint between his position and the slower runner’s position. From there he has to reach the new midpoint between him and the one in front. And so on. He will never reach the slower runner in front. Or it can be explained like this:
“There are a series of philosophical problems known as Zeno’s paradoxes. One of them says that as you attempt to leave a room, you must first reach the midpoint between you and the exit. As you continue toward the doorway, you will again reach the new midpoint, with each successive attempt to exit the room requiring you to reach the next midpoint. The paradox is that you should be unable to leave a room because you can infinitely halve the distance to the exit without ever getting out of the room.”
― J. Russell Ramsay, The Adult ADHD Tool Kit: Using CBT to Facilitate Coping Inside and Out
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“At least I’m still in love with Yorick’s skull. At least I always have time enough to stay in love with Yorick’s skull. I want an honorable goddam skull when I’m dead, buddy. I hanker after an honorable goddam skull like Yorick’s.”
J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
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I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.
Alice Walker, The Colour Purple
Adults should not weep, I knew. They did not have mothers who would comfort them.
Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Line
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“I reckon responsible behavior is something to get when you grow older. Like varicose veins.”
Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters
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There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.
Pablo Picasso
It’s not what you look at what matters. It’s what you see.
Henry David Thoreau
Abstract art: a product of the untalented sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.
Al Capp
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pictures imperfect blog 