Stories, Essays, and Thoughts Worth Saying Aloud
I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. — Quaker Saying
Benjamin Franklin’s daily schedule begins with the question “What good shall I do this day?” and ends with “What good have I done to-day?” As we go through our daily routines in what we are pleased to call “modern life” we are commanded to be productive, to achieve, succeed, dominate. We are urged to earn more, buy more, own more. And then we are directed to throw out all of those things in order to achieve joy, or we are lured by the promise that if we just bought a few, better, things - “artisan” objects - we would achieve our best selves. But after we have passed through this world our achievements and our possessions will be no more than dust. It is the good that we do each day that will outlive us. This Journal sets out to provide a voice for the good that we can all do every day, and to witness the small ways in which life is surprising, ironic, uplifting, uproarious, amusing, sad, and joyous.
The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea. — Isak Dinesen