Paradoxes of Life

Everyone knows that life is full of paradoxes. 

The more you grab on to something, the more it will slip away.

Bad feelings are not necessarily bad. Feelings on their own are not good or bad. Anger is not bad. Senseless violence is bad. Confusion is not bad. Unrealistic expectations are bad.

Not everyone knows how to think or feel. Ok, I’m cheating a little and being sensationalist. More accurately, not everyone is good at putting their thoughts and feelings into words. Not everyone is good at expressing their needs and opinions in a gracious or constructive fashion. The result quite often is that you’re not sure why the other person is so upset. Or worse, pent up frustrations are unleashed as attacks and accusations. The listener then defends himself and attacks back. And so on and so forth.

To understand other people, you have to understand yourself first. 

To forgive other people, you have to forgive yourself first.

The more you can love, the more you can hate, but not vice versa.

No matter what your circumstances are, you can always imagine something better.

Tell Me More: On the Fine Art of Listening

If you search the web for “Art of Listening”, you will come across something written by Brenda Ueland. At first I thought I had inadvertantly stolen someone else’s title, but the full title of her article is actually “Tell Me More: On the Fine Art of Listening”. You can read the entire article here.

The Tagline On My Blog

For as long as I remember, I have believed that “Thinking is the process of putting ideas into words” is a quote from Northrop Frye. Unfortunately, I do not have the reference to back up my belief. The closest thing I have is: "The operation of thinking is the practice of articulating ideas until they are in the right words." This particular quote comes from an article called "Don't You Think It's Time to Start Thinking?" from The Toronto Star, published on Jan 25, 1986.

Does anyone know where my tagline quote comes from?

Why Women Like Shoes

One time I went on a sales call with a colleague of mine. We arrived downtown at around 9:30 in the morning. I noticed that not only were the shoe stores open, but women were happily shopping inside. This lead to a series of questions between us which can simply be boiled down to: “Why?”

After a few months of soul-searching (admittedly with no field research and no expert interviews), I finally reached an answer. Women's outfits have more variations, more styles and combinations. Skirt length and shape itself can be the subject of volumes of books. You need a variety of shoe styles and colors in order to mix and match with the rest of the outfit. Having a good collection of shoes is like having a good set of oil colors, or a well-stocked spice rack: it makes it easier and more fun to create a successful final product. 

This also explains why other accessories may not be the popular collectables that shoes are. You do not carry a handbag all day. Jewelry goes in and out of style. Shoes, however, you have to wear all day, every day. As a result, women have to constantly be on the lookout for shoes that complement or accentuate their outfits (including ones they already own and ones yet to be purchased). 

As a side-note, when a woman says, “I have nothing to wear!” it means she is not sure how to put together a fresh-looking, interesting clothing combination based on the ingredients in her clothing closet.