Good Clean Reads

“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.”  ~Henry Ford

I won the Willamette Angel Conference one year ago on Friday. I just did a feature story interview about what has happened since the win and how I would describe the experience. As I considered the interview and how to describe my past experience I referred to the Angel Conference website, which lists the following goals...

“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.”  ~Washington Irving

The...

“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide.” -Albert Camus

Today was the memorial service for the doctor who recently took his own life. The local high school auditorium was full to capacity again, for yet another untimely death in our community. First I was struck by how many lives a single life touches. We are often so unaware of how many people we impact each day...

“Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.”  ~James Stephens

Perhaps the single most overlooked attribute that has the potential to transform a life is curiosity. An inborn trait that defines us as small children; it is through our eagerness to explore, desire to understand and to know our world and ourselves that predicts our capacity to learn, change and adapt. Our social network...

“I can’t change the fact that my paintings don’t sell. But the time will come when people will recognize that they are worth more than the value of the paints used in the picture.”  -Vincent van Gogh

Would Van Gogh ever have believed that his work would fetch millions? I know that he never made a penny witnessing and rendering the world in broad strokes of color. He stayed true to his vision...

Using science and research to back her up,  acclaimed writer  Tara Parker-Pope dispels the popular mythology about the death of monogamy with For Better. Called “the most credible and interesting marital self-help book of all time” by Newsweek, Tara has managed to provide a clear and comprehensive context that proves that saving and improving your marriage/relationship is more than worth the...

“People do not die for us immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura of life which bears no relation to true immortality but through which they continue to occupy our thoughts in the same way as when they were alive.  It is as though they were traveling abroad. ” ~Marcel Proust

Recently a man shot himself in the head in his garden. I pass by his home every time I get the opportunity to walk...

“Envy is the most stupid of vices, for there is no single advantage to be gained from it.” ~Honore de Balzac

Jealousy is not a helpful emotion. There is very little goodness in it, although it serves as one of our primary fall backs, as it is the emotion connected to our most primitive survival mechanisms. Forbidden in all of the ancient religious texts, our earliest ancestors knew the damage that...