To Labor and To Wait...

A Psalm of Life

What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist

TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!—
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,—act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.   ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

ADDED: Home reading.

Sun-day Lived Up to Its Name Today.

We went above freezing for the first time in a long time (don't think we hit 33 yesterday). Clear Lake too, where Buddy and I stopped off for a walk on the way home, lived up to its name, in the spring-fed part where the waters were still open.

He's sleeping now. Rabbit-hopping through a foot of soft snow, off the harder tire treads or snowmobile tracks, takes a lot of exertion for a little dog. But it must seem worth it, sniffing the base of the trees where other animals have marked.

He loved it. Hope you got out too, and maybe felt a touch of spring in the air...

Has the Supreme Court “ 'stacked the deck' against gay marriage" ...

"in how it has framed the question?" asks Richard Hansen, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine.

WASHINGTON — The first page of a petition seeking Supreme Court review is the most important. It sets out the “question presented,” the one the court will answer if it takes the case.

The justices do not ordinarily tinker with the wording of those questions. But on Friday something unusual happened: In agreeing to hear four same-sex marriage cases, the court framed for itself the issues it would address.

 ...

The court’s order was not issued until 3:30 in the afternoon, long after the justices’ private morning conference concluded. That suggested the drafting had taken some time and had involved some negotiation.

...

“The court’s order represents 'good housekeeping',” said Laurence H. Tribe, a law professor at Harvard.

But Professor Tribe also voiced a small note of caution.

“The rephrased questions,” he said, “technically leave open a middle path along which the court would prevent states from discriminating against same-sex couples lawfully married in their home states without requiring any state to take the affirmative step of issuing its own marriage licenses to same-sex couples.”

...

Some were puzzled by the court’s language in the new questions. They invoked, as the petitions had, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees due process and equal protection. But some saw a subtle shift of emphasis, away from the rights of people seeking to get married and toward the obligations the amendment imposes on states.

The court’s first question: “Does the 14th Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex?”  The second: “Does the 14th Amendment require a state to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state?”

Michael C. Dorf, a law professor at Cornell, said the wording at first blush was “a bit odd.”

“After all,” he wrote in a blog post, “one might think that the answer to both questions is no, so long as the state doesn’t license or recognize any marriages, same-sex or opposite-sex.

“But in fact, the states all do license and recognize opposite-sex marriages, so the objection is academic,” he added. “Moreover, under the court’s fundamental rights jurisprudence, states probably cannot simply deny marriage to everyone.”

...
A decision resolving the questions the Supreme Court presented itself with on Friday is expected by the end of June.

I've never been an early champagne-cork popper myself...
(Don't take anything for granted. #EqualOpportunitiesNotSpecialEntitlements)

Happy Birthday, Mate.

When Mal turned 40, Ruth and I ran the enclosed photo in a boxed ad in the local weekly paper: "Lordy, Lordy, Look Who's 40!"

So he laughed today, when I quipped:
"Good God Alive!  You're 55 ??"

Heh.

#StubbornOldGoatLove
---------------
UPDATE:  I just did the math. 1959... 2015... Duh, he's 56!

"Mal, why didn't you correct me when you laughed at my joke earlier?"  Talk about respecting artistic license and all... he didn't want to step on my joke, it seems.

Happiness is...

a Fluffy Puppy!

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* or an older dog, hair grown out for winter warmth -- think shaggy Benji -- who thinks he's a pup after a half-hour out sniffing wild-animal tracks on the trail.

In personal news, my temp document review project(s) that kept me busy from mid-October, through the holidays, including weekend hours for a stretch there, wrapped Monday.  Hoping to be placed again soon; catching up on things up north.

Just remember:  Happiness is a Fluffy Puppy, however defined.

Come and Get Your Love...

or, Take good care of the people who take care of you.*

ARLINGTON, Tex. — With 28 seconds left in the national championship game, Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott scored his fourth and final touchdown. After celebrating in the end zone, he ran to the sideline, where he slapped hands with one of the most famous athletes in the world, LeBron James, who banged his helmet with pride as Elliott jogged off to be with his teammates.
...
Elliott committed to Ohio State not half a year after Meyer became head coach and more than a year before Elliott graduated high school. He helped John Burroughs, a private school west of downtown St. Louis, reach the state championship in his senior year.

Recruiting him was not the easiest task, Meyer said at a news conference Tuesday morning, because his parents, Stacy and Dawn, were athletes at Missouri, Stacy in football and Dawn in track.

“His dad got real involved, and his dad’s issue is that he loves his son so much that he was right in the middle to the point where it drove us nuts,” Meyer said, explaining that Elliott’s father was concerned his son could get crowded out by other running backs on the roster.

Things, you could say, have been patched up: The Elliotts have had Thanksgiving dinner at Meyer’s house the past two years.

---------------

A Big Ten team winning the national title over a Pacific-12 team with a running back carrying the ball 36 times hearkened back to an earlier era of college football.

It was a triumph for Meyer’s system, which combines the spread offense he helped invent more than a decade ago at Utah and which he used to win two national titles at Florida with the ground-and-pound mentality one expects from a traditional Big Ten program.

...

On Tuesday morning, Meyer reconciled the two aspects of his offense, which will presumably keep him in the title conversation for the foreseeable future.

“I hear people say we’re a spread offense, but it’s a line‑of‑scrimmage league.  You win on the offensive line and defensive line. When we get on a plane first class, the quarterback doesn’t sit up there.”

He turned to [Quarterback Cardale] Jones, who sat next to him, and said: “Who sits up there?”

Jones was ready with the answer: “The offensive line.”

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 "Come and Get Your Love...Come and Get Your Love...Come and Get Your Love Now..."

~ Redbone

* Because Success has many mistresses...

Never Forget.

How Do You Like Them Apples?

The Ohio State University,
led by Urban Meyer,
takes the national championship.

The most remarkable thing about this team is that it arrived seemingly a year ahead of schedule, full of talented sophomores Meyer believed would form a title contender next season. OSU will certainly open the year at No. 1 in the polls and a favorite to repeat.

The dominance of these Buckeyes (14-1) opens up the question whether Meyer is college football’s top coach, a title most often given to Alabama’s Nick Saban.

It’s a subjective title that spurs debate online and through talk radio. Saban’s four national titles (three at 'Bama, one at LSU) still trumps Meyer by one.

However, these Buckeyes showed Meyer at his best, recruiting and then meshing talent into a cohesive unit, developing players to maximize their ability and finally instilling them with confidence and motivating them to victory.

How bout that Big 10 again?

A combination of old-school, smash-mouth strength and modern spread principles made the Buckeyes offense a nightmare to prepare against. The defense was both physical and fluid.

And the team just doesn’t rattle, overcoming an early season loss to Virginia Tech and running off 13 consecutive victories to give the Big Ten much-needed national credibility.

"The chase is complete," Meyer said. "These guys accepted their final mission and did it. ...This is a heck of a football team in scarlet and gray and I want to celebrate with the guys I love."

Been Down Harder Roads...

He left coaching for a year to concentrate on his health and spend more time with his family. He returned, in part, because the possibilities at Ohio State were too great. He vowed to bring an SEC mentality to the Big Ten, stepping up recruiting and competitiveness.

Boom.  He Got the Job Done.
Early, Even...

---------------------
We in the Mighty Midwest Salute You!
*particularly those who have lived in Southern regions during years of SEC dominance (and arrogance).  We Shall Overcome Today.

~ 1990 Northwestern University graduate.
The Medill School of Journalism.

("That's all right.  That's ok...
Y'all be working for us some day!" )

Monday Morning.

May You Find Something to do in your careers this week that adds rather than destroys.  That unveils truth, rather than hides behind delays, falsities and stereotypes.  Something you hope to work at for many many years...

Something not so much worth dying for, but working towards and worth living for...  Anybody can ridicule and destroy.  Building something of beauty and worth that stands the test of time... these are the foundations of civilization.
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God bless:  stay warm and keep working it.

If It All Were Only That Easy... #Change

Deion Sanders

In my opinion that should have been a catch BUT I understand the rules. That rule will be reviewed in the off season I promise you. #Truth

Dez Bryant Loses.*

Packers win, with a big assist from the referees.
------------------------

*The man made a great catch, and clearly proved he had had control and was in complete possession.  Sad to see the refs overrule the call on the field.

Mr. Fourth Down, Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett, made a risky call with his team down 26-21 with 4:42 left. He decided to go for it on fourth-and-2 from the Green Bay 32, and it appeared a brilliant risk when Dez Bryant made a circus catch at the 1-yard line, skying over cornerback Sam Shields.
...

But brilliance — gutsy, spine-tingling gambling that worked — was denied.

Seems a bit wrong in such a great game.

Don't Believe Me?

Just Watch...

There Are Three Wooden Crosses ...

on the Right Side of the Highway.
Why there's not four of them*, 
I guess now we know...
It's not what you take when you leave this world behind you;
It's what you leave behind you when you go.
--------------------
* or five -- everyone's left wondering what became of the bus driver...

Dona Nobis Pacem.

God Doesn't Give Us What We Can Handle...

God Helps Us Handle What We Are Given.

Never Forget.
----------------------
Corinthians 10:13, New International Version:

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

Hating on... Brunch?

"Dozens of demonstrators today stormed restaurants and targeted white diners in New York and California as part of a 'Black Brunch' protest against alleged police violence."

"Carrying banners, the chanting protesters entered a number of venues in New York City that they identified as 'white spaces', including midtown eateries: Lallisse, Maialino and Pershing Square. Once inside, they 'disrupted' customers' meals by reading out the names of African-Americans killed by police, including Michael Brown, 17, who was shot dead by officer Darren Wilson last August. Addressing staff and patrons, they shouted: 'Every 28 hours, a black person in America is killed by the police. These are our brothers and sisters. Today and every day, we honor their lives.'"
------------------

I heard one young "protest leader" entered the kitchen, and burnt up all the toast! But just the white bread... Rye got a pass. Special protections and all...

(This "protest" business really has jumped the shark at this point. It's like, they can't think of any constructive change to bring about, or understand the hard work necessary to make cultural changes that treat black boys as potentially responsible men, not wannabe thugs with the pants falling down in pre-prison garb. Oh well, turn up the music and sing your swears, I guess. That'll show 'em.)
====================================

ADDED: *************************
Elsewhere, Nina shares her good news! (click link for a beautiful baby picture.)
(I hope she's not photoshopping that little girl. The colors in that first picture are amazing, and hopefully real!)

So cold weather and a full moon, but still plenty of warmth out there. Congratulations to the new parents, especially the mother, and the blog hostess. (I have a feeling a new baby will change everything about that blog. Like an older, but still young, sibling who perhaps has no idea what is in store when the parents bring home a new child, poor Ed -- I predict -- will no longer command the center of attention on the blog, via daily pics and updates. He's happy about that too though! A win-win win-win all the way around for everyone then!! And props to Nina too, for refraining from reporting the child's first APGAR score. I think the picture -- if untouched -- tells the story there, no?)

“A baby is God's opinion that life should go on. A book that does nothing to you is dead. A baby, whether it does anything to you, represents life. If a bad fire should break out in this house and I had my choice of saving the library or the babies, I would save what is alive. Never will a time come when the most marvelous recent invention is as marvelous as a newborn baby. The finest of our precision watches, the most super-colossal of our supercargo plants, don't compare with a newborn baby in the number and ingenuity of coils and springs, in the flow and change of chemical solutions, in timing devices and interrelated parts that are irreplaceable. A baby is very modern. Yet it is also the oldest of the ancients. A baby doesn't know (s)he is a hoary and venerable antique — but (s)he is. Before man learned how to make an alphabet, how to make a wheel, how to make a fire, he knew how to make a baby — with the great help of woman, and his God and Maker.”

~ Carl Sandburg

Monday Morning: You Sure Look Fine...

Back to School, Back to Work.

Get Up Everyone, and
Get On Down the Line,
as the song goes...

This is the kind of weather, subzero cold, puts hair on the chest, if only to keep one warm. I have heated seats in my vehicle, for the first time this year. Others at work speak of their heated steering wheels for their fingertips...

Woody Allen had it right: a good part of Life is just showing up.

Safe travels.
Happy workday and week!

It's the Most Wonderful* Day...

of the Week!
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* I hope you never lose your sense of wonder.
You get your fill to eat, but always keep that hunger.
May you never take one single breath for granted...

Poor Sportsmanship...

Never Read So Good!

PASADENA, Calif. -- Jameis Winston evaded two Oregon tacklers and wound up to throw, but both of his feet slipped on the Rose Bowl turf. While he tried and failed to stay upright, Florida State's star quarterback lost the ball backward over his head in a comical arc, and Tony Washington hurdled him to scoop and score.

It's hardly what you'd expect to be the defining image of what may be the final game for one of the most successful quarterbacks in recent college history.

But unless Winston defies predictions that he'll enter the NFL draft, he ended a career spent mostly on top by stumbling, tumbling and landing flat on his tailbone.
...
While the Ducks' lead mounted, coach Jimbo Fisher was caught on television telling his quarterback to "calm ... down, or you're going to the bench."

De-nial. Still:

“This game could have went either way. If everybody in this room just want to be real with themselves, this game could have went either way. Just be real with yourself right now. We beat ourselves.”

"We Finish Here."

“As we soon as we started the game, in the first drive, I already saw their heads going down,” Oregon linebacker Torrodney Prevot said. “Their hands started getting on their hips. We see their endurance — it’s not that strong. We noticed it on film. They played people that can’t finish. That’s what we do. We finish here.”

Idiot Olympics @IdiotOlympics:
MANTI TE'O'S GIRLFRIEND WITH HER 1ST CAREER SACK
=================================

Added: Go easy on the young men, Coach.
(These guys honestly get it... Nothing wrong with that.)

S.E.See-Ya!

or,
Na-na-na-nah! Na-na-na-nah!
Hey-hey-hey...Goodbye.

~The Ohio State University
vs.
the Oregon Ducks.

Sounds like a championship game, to me.
S.E.C.-ya!

Any Way You Look at This, Cops Lose...

A young pundit writing for The Atlantic sees no easy way out for the men and women of the New York City police force, tasked with deciding whether or not to enforce "minor" infractions.

From the "Don't Enforce" gang:

If this significant work slowdown has basically no effect on the safety of New York City, the NYPD's prior policing will appear to have been needlessly aggressive, and the case for deploying more cops on the street in the future will be undermined.

Scott Shackford zeroes in on this line from the Post article: "...cops were turning a blind eye to some minor crimes and making arrests only 'when they have to' since the execution-style shootings of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu."

He riffs, "Well, we can only hope the NYPD unions and de Blasio settle their differences soon so that the police can go back to arresting people for reasons other than 'when they have to.'

The NYPD’s failure to arrest and cite people will also end up costing the city huge amounts of money that it won’t be able to seize from its citizens, which is likely the real point. That’s the 'punishment' for the de Blasio administration for not supporting them. One has to wonder if they even understand, or care, that their 'work stoppage' is giving police state critics exactly what they want—less harsh enforcement of the city’s laws."

and the more conservative viewpoint:

Others, like myself, don't object to strictly enforcing laws against, say, public urination, traffic violations, or illegal parking, but would love it if the NYPD stopped frisking innocents without probable cause or even reasonable suspicion, needlessly escalating encounters with civilians, and (especially) killing unarmed people, goals that are perfectly compatible with data-driven policing that targets actual disorder. Keep squeegee men at bay–and leave innocent black and Hispanic men alone.

What if Broken Windows theory is correct and the work slowdown causes an increase in disorder and thus more serious crime? The NYPD will have put the safety and perhaps even the lives of New Yorkers in jeopardy to punish a politician for purportedly disrespecting them.

Such a course might succeed in decreasing de Blasio's popularity. But the public is unlikely to think that willfully putting New Yorkers in jeopardy to settle a political score is a forgivable tactic. It is certainly at odds with the notion that NYPD officers represent "New York's finest," heroes who willingly sacrifice themselves* to protect and serve.

The force, made up of people like Officer Ramos and Officer Liu, would be better served if civilian society decided whether or not they want officers to risk their lives patrolling and investigating small-level offenses, which often lead to violence against smaller people.

Unless society wants to continue disintegrating, the public should own those decisions. Not blame the officers who understand if they do patrol and investigate the laws as written, the public and leadership might not have their backs.
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* I have never met a police officer who considered it his or her role to "willingly sacrifice" himself to protect and serve the community. In fact, it's just the opposite: They work so no needless sacrifices are offered; that's what the debate about what the 'lawful use of force' is all about, in valuing and defending "Blue Lives".