The following “Observations” are excerpted from Chapter 2, We Humans,
Greed, like sex, obliterates the rational mind.
New knowledge validates
previous ignorance.
Behavior is animated belief.
Desire is costly.
Everything is debatable.
Unchecked greed, sex, and power
intoxicate, corrupt, diminish, and destroy.
Intransigence leads to solitude or war.
Life wears and tears.
No one can be everything to everyone.
Habits are more easily
acquired than broken.
Like springtime, first kisses
are alive with new birth.
Exploitation poisons society
and infects the perpetrators.
Nothing is too bad to be true.
We give our attention
to what we value.
Consequences affect incentive;
incentive determines behavior.
We ignore our body’s messages
as we do those of other wise teachers.
We are a species adrift
in search of a rudder.
Life is a race
with uneven starting lines.
Affluence is the mother of corpulence.
Balance is easily tipped.
Youth likes loud music.
We clamor for more
but don’t know what for.
Few can define comfort,
contentment, or enough.
Most harm is self-inflicted.
Available space, time, and money
are soon consumed.
Our diets are driven by concern for profit,
not nutrition.
The competent have difficulty
recalling their incompetence.
Youth cannot know
what only age reveals.
The fearless have many fears.
Intelligence is apparent.
The restlessness of youth
is stilled by the responsibilities of age.
If a fee can be charged,
it will be.
Deceit invites vengeance.
The affluent eat and drink
themselves into oblivion.
Our thoughts are streams
flowing through our minds.
Those who strain to please
usually don’t.
We are our brain.
Security and adventure
compete with each other.
Women more easily express love.
The passion of intimacy
is intoxicating.
Many aspire; few succeed.
Lawyers, like armies,
are a necessary evil.
Mediocrity has plenty of company;
excellence searches for peers.
That which we influence
influences us.
Given the opportunity,
most of us will overeat.
The weak follow the strong.
We fear the same diversity
by which we are sustained.
Marriage produces disagreements;
solitude results in loneliness.
Our parent’s words
are etched in our soul.
Balance is the exception,
not the norm.