The Core

>a tool

Absolutely! Best quote in this thread, Dras.  I have a related quip I used to make to those complaining about Debbie Downer:

An optimist, almost by definition, is never prepared to handle problems.

Must remember. Must remember. Must remember.

This quote is up there with one my wife likes: "Never judge your insides by someone else's outsides."

By tools, I mean these are literally chisels, lathes and saws that you can use to shape your reality for the better.

Great variant.

She usually is thinking of situations where you see someone and think "Wow. She's so confident. I wish I were like that when I need to speak to a group" and then you find out the person is so scared that she hasn't eaten all day. Or "That person has it so together and is so happy, I wish I could be like that" and that other person is suffering from deep depression.

The variant is awesome and one worth adding to a mental collection.

Ergophobe is right of course. And like many quotes that I really like I wish they would come to mind more often when I really need them.

>'Civilization is a race between disaster and education' H.G. Wells.

We're smart enough to do a lot of damage, not wise enough to stop ourselves.

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw

Actually... I would like to know how old GBS was when he wrote that. Watching people struggle through their later years, I call BS on that one.

I prefer, instead, the quote from Utah Philips, speaking of Nevada City, CA (form memory, but close enough)

Meanwhile old Jesse McVeigh the well digger is sitting on the porch of the Union Hotel watching all the freaks walk by in the street and saying "No matter how New Age you get, old age gonna kick your a##.

First off, apologies to Gary. Didn't mean to rain on your quote.

I guess it's just rather overused in the circles I run in. I've always had a wide age range in my friends - even in my twenties I had a dear friend (non-family) in his 80s. I've seen so many struggle with old age and feel like our society has a culture of youth that pretends old age is not going to happen.

But I do understand the sentiment. I'm the 53-year-old guy who still rides the shopping cart down the hill to the car. Since this is so obviously fun if your market has a parking lot on a hill, it is an utter mystery to me that I have *never* seen another adult do this at my market.

It is tragic the extent to which many adults have lost their sense of play.

>>older than my grandmother

My mentor was about 80 when my wife died her hair blue. Everyone over the age of 50 said "What did you do *that* for?" I was curious what Bob would say. We met him on the street and he saw the sun shining through making her hair electric blue and he said "Your hair is BLUE!"

I thought "Uh oh."

And without missing a beat he said "It's so festive! I love it!"

And I thought "Oh yes, that's why I love this man"