Thursday, December 27, 2007

greatness in two hours a day

This past summer we went to a performance of the Five Browns: http://www.the5browns.com/

Actually, it was a musical fireside at church, so they each took turns playing and speaking. They are each such good pianists. Since there was only one piano on stage, the most that could play together was three of them. I imagine it would be wonderful to hear all five at the same time.

The father said they get a lot of compliments on how talented their children are and he said that his usual response is, "Well, you do anything for 2 hours a day for 16 years or so and you'll get pretty good at it, too."
(That's not an exact quote, but that's the gist of it.)

So, what do I spend two hours a day doing that I am becoming great at?

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Want to change the world?

E. T. Sullivan once wrote these interesting words: “When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn’t stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home and of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother’s heart, and she puts it into the baby’s mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earthquakes and the thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies.”

Inspiring Quote

From 'A Thomas Jefferson Education" Revised Edition, p.112

"As a ... wife and mother, some of you will face a seemingly never-ending pile of laundry, dishes and housework. You may wonder what happened to the 'great expectations' of leadership ablilites that you learned in the classics.

Yet it is in exactly such circumstances that the character of leaders, statesmen, Founding Fathers and Mothers is forged. It is in the small and simple things that greatness is obtained. When the day comes that you are called upon for what the world calls 'great things,' you will see clearly that they are no greater than the things you did at home.

By the way, that call will come. If you have paid the price of greatness through classics and mentors, and if you continue to pay the price of greatness in the next phase of your education - the everyday life phase- you will become great, and you will be called upon to change the world."