1. Love endures long following the death of a beloved. Would that grieving be short lived.
2. Sharing countless hours with a friend creates countless hours of comfort and joy often punctuated by mutual laughter.
3. Make yourself meaningless by picking on someone who self-deprecates.
4. Ten minutes of pleasing idleness cannot match a full day of hard, satisfying labor.
5. Do not trod overly long on any path that provides neither peace nor comfort.
6. For 97.3% of the time for 98.4% of the people, close enough is good enough.
7. Cogito ergo sum = I think therefore I am. How can that be true when one just thinketh he thinketh?
8. If your spouse is not your best friend, you're doing something wrong.
9. Eenie meenie mynie moe. Catch a K.K.K-er by the toe. If he hollers, don't let him go. Eenie meenie mynie moe.
10. Ain't nothing easy while too many other things get in the way. *See # 25.
11. A bird in the hand can get messy and not be worth anything.
12. A penny earned and saved ain't worth the bother. Ditto with nickels and dimes.
13. What's a person to do if yesterdays grow dimmer and dimmer until there's no tomorrow to make another yesterday?
14. When close to my final dimming, I plant to take more naps after eating monstrous bowls of ice cream.
15. The trouble with youth stems from that age group having too much time, thereby experiencing boredom to excess.
16. The trouble with the aged stems from their not having enough time, thereby experiencing discomfort. All things considered, give me discomfort over boredom.
17. Things come, things go. Only good intentions remain static.
18. Persona trumps body build.
19. It's okay for you to say, I have found the truth. But, did that truth entitle you to force others by legal mandates to believe as thee?
20. When fighting, never faint while feinting.
21. Smile or laugh whether the world does likewise or even takes little note of your presence.
22. Joining boozy to blowsy makes Jack and/or Jill not just dull, but obnoxious.
23. Senility and devolution sleep on a dirt floor without need for sheet or pillow.
24. Long winter nights and vodka create a special madness. Don't believe me? Visit any Nordic country during the winter solstice.
25. The art of procrastination (see # 10) requires three major components: (A.) The ability to constantly seek a more important subject to perform first. (B) Compulsive attentiveness to all details appertaining before instituting a final plan of action. (3) The talent to improvise quality excuses for any and all delays. (C)Extreme concentration and diligence can conquer many tasks. Nevertheless, 'tis always wise to lie upon a couch before any serious undertaking.
26. Love: an inverted triangle holding some individuals into lifetime unions that started at the bottom with heated passion, but found endurance and expansion through gentle caresses, affectionate words, and thoughtful deeds that overrode negative eruptions.
27. Dirt qualifies as a spice for camping cookouts.
28. An avid sports fan emotes on the same level as a parent attending a child's musical recital.
29. Having just turned 82, I realize that I'm forgetting faster than I learn. In that I need a full and active intelligence to measure my state of knowing, my forgetfulness often diminishes and sometimes nullifies any recent learning. Huh?
30. In my judgment, having worked as a deputy probation officer in Los Angeles County, California, the majority of habitual offenders are either stupid or don't care. Sometimes both.
31. A supernatural creator needs no defense nor should it/he/she/they have any need to worry about the degree of spirituality offered by the human species. That sentiment aside, I do agree that we must at least attempt to manage our minds to treat all species as equals. To do less thus invites others to do less, which, in turn, degrades our evolutionary value.
And finally – the last and my favorite – one I improvised while eating an ordinary meal with a fine set of people whose discourse offered fun and fellowship. Those two ingredients offset many a mundane, often boring assembly.
32. It matters not what you eat or where you eat, but with whom you dine.
****News Flash****
Country Squire Retires! — Alter-Ego Takes Over
Heretofore, starting in February 2010, George Zidbeck authored articles, tales, and essays under the banner of Observations of a Country Squire. Having recently turned 82 years of age, Mr. Zidbeck desires to make his mark as a notable writer on the national stage before his final hour. Desiring to rewrite his final novel, The Aquarian Son, with the aim of achieving a modicum of fame, he has tendered his notice to Editor Judy Sullivan. Pithy Sayings concludes Mr. Zidbecks contributions under the Squire's perspective.
Sensing an opportunity to assert his literary talent, Mr. Zidbeck's alter ego, who uses the nom de plume of H. Abe has stepped forward, offering to write an advice column. Mr. Abe readily acknowledges he is not licensed to offer psychiatric or family counseling, but does confidently swear and affirm possession of the following virtues and attributes:
I am a kind and generous person – as honest and as forthright as a person can be who has been in life's trenches, smelled the stenches, and walked for long distances through life's travails and inequities.
I have yielded to temptations, some illegal, but have transcended them to where I now breathe free, no longer worrying over penal sanctions attaching to felonious behaviors or about how some people or groups might reject my secular humanism.
I have experienced numerous cultures and subcultures, and researched countless societies past and present. Moreover, my innate curiosity over what makes the world and all of its inhabitants 'tick' has never slackened.
I believe that fairness and good works carry the day, and that good neighborliness fuels human natures far beyond political or religious memberships. (Neither great talent or exceptional competence insures good manners, polite discourse, or the inclination to assist those who might benefit from humanitarian intrusions.)
I'm reasonably certain that every living being is joined at the hip, and that more mobile and intelligent species can not move about independent of protozoan wigglies.
Therefore, I'm confident that I, Mr. Abe, can assist some people who see themselves as 'sticks-in-the-mud' mired in circumstances that signal the beginning of hopelessness and despair. The proof of my pudding will be in my responses and your editorial judgments. I'm ready.
Send your queries, affixing only your two initials and your state to Mr. Abe. Let's get it on!
Sincerely, S/ H. Abe
