Last Day to Vote

Today is the last day to vote for the Quirky Quote Contest - see the poll on the left sidebar. I am sorry that I haven't publicized this very well - it seems even all of our contestants haven't voted yet! I have been sick for a couple of days now and hoping I can keep snot from running down my face long enough to get this note up here!
PLEASE vote - and tell others.
Happy quote voting!

Quirky Quotes 2008 in Their Entirety

Here are all quotes in their entirety. Please use the poll in the left sidebar to place your votes. There is one vote per IP address. Voting ends on February 27, 2008 at 11:59 pm. If you have any questions, please contact me at julientexas AT sbcglobal DOT net.

#1 - "To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while." - Josh Billings

#2 - “I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess” - Martin Luther

#3 - "You can drown in the shallowness of your own heart" - Dr. Flint McGlaughlin

#4 - "He who has no sense of self-importance cannot be offended or defeated." - W. Phillip Keller

#5 - "Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured." - Mark Twain

#6 - "God answers all our prayers, but sometimes the best answer is 'no'." - The Family Circus

#7 - Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.

#8 - "Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles. It empties today of its strength."

#9 - Once when John Holt (the father of unschooling) was speaking to a school audience, describing his views on their structured curriculum, a student asked him, "But surely there must be something important enough that everyone should learn it?” He thought for a moment and replied, “To learn to say ‘I’m sorry’, ‘I don’t know’, and ‘I was wrong’. “

#10 – “The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to be ruled over by him, nor out of his foot to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected and near his heart to be beloved.” - Matthew Henry

#11 – “Not all who wander are lost.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

#12 – “The pessimist is the man who believes things couldn’t possibly be worse, to which the optimist replies, ‘Oh yes they could.’” -Vladmir Bukovsky

#13 – “Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.” - Martin Luther

#14 – “Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother.” -Lin Yutang

#15 – “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere to go. My own wisdom, and that about me seemed insufficient for the day.” -Abraham Lincoln

#16 – “Who wants flowers when you’re dead? Nobody.” - J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye

#17 – “Every happening, great or small, is a parable by which God speaks to us. The art of life is to get the message.” - The Ultimate Gift

#18 – “Those who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.” - Benjamin Franklin

#19 – “Everyone wants to tell you what to do and what’s good for you. They don’t want you to find your own answers; they want you to believe theirs.” - Socrates, Peaceful Warrior

#20 – “If God loved you as much as you love Him, where would you be?”

#21 – “Some people are so open-minded their brains fall out.” - Rick Warren

#22 – “Common sense is wisdom with its sleeves rolled up.” - Kyle Farnsworth

#23 – “We cannot choose whom we will love if we claim to be Christians.” - Anonymous

#24 – “Live in such a way that those who know you but don’t know God will come to know God because they know you.” - Anonymous

#25 – “I might repeat to myself, slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound; if I could remember any of the damn things.” - Dorothy Parker

#26 – “You have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love, I love, I love you.” - Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice

#27 – “Love is many things. It’s varied. One thing it is not and can never be is unsure.” Maya Angelou in Madea’s Family Reunion

#28 – “Things are more like they are now than they have ever been.” - Gerald R. Ford

#29 – “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” - Ruth Beechick

#30 – “Just be.” –friend from college, Stephanie DuBois

#31 – “They need love the most who deserve it the least.” - Mama Evans

#32 – “The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without his teacher.” - Elbert Hubbard

#33 – “My mother said I drove her crazy. I did not drive my mother crazy. I flew here there. It was faster.” - Robin Tyler

#34 – “If we took long enough and hard enough…we will begin to see the connections that bind us together, and when we recognize those connections, we will begin to change the world.” - Muriel Rykeyser

#35 – “I’ve always been skeptical of those television healers who are bald. I mean, if I had that gift, that would be the first thing I’d fix.” - Tony Campolo

#36 – “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.” - C.S. Lewis

Political Ramblings

I have been hesitant to post these thoughts, as they are not from the flow of popular opinion in what I am certain is the majority of my blog audience. Homeschoolers tend to be predominately heavy on the evangelical right of the political spectrum. I have always tended to lean in that direction myself.
I believe in the sanctity of life and marriage. I have just started to wonder if we can make laws that govern morality, and what great moral ground we gain by making laws that then drive people into back alleys and dark closets.
I know....all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
Are we really doing something when we go to the polls with our vision narrowed to these two items as our primary focus? Is it possible that the thing we are to do as good men is to impact the lives of those whose paths we cross in our daily comings and goings? Can laws really touch the heart and change the climate for good, or are we duplicating the outward cleanliness of the Pharisees, and having the depth of who we are as a culture unaffected?
When our family moved a year and a half ago to southeast Texas, I was introduced to the legalistic strivings of the Christian community to ban the sale of alcohol, and it caused me to dig deeper and think harder about such things, and of what importance they are to God. I have come to understand that God cares about the individual, and that legislation can never replace relationship which was His ultimate plan for impacting the world. (The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.) I may obey the letter of the law, but it cannot make me love an unwanted child growing in my womb, or restrain myself with sexual integrity.
Sometimes my head starts to spin, when I think of those who awaited Jesus to take His throne as an earthly King and their disappointment when they realized this was never His intention. I often feel like we are caught in that same chasm.
I have no political agenda, or easy answers, nor am I asking for any. I am just putting these thoughts out there into cyberspace. I am eagerly anticipating your (respectful) thoughts.