‘Jester Pure Carmine’
Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination. —Voltaire
‘Jester Pure Blue’
By Nick Thomas –
“While Presidents’ Day may be a time to reflect on the nation’s leaders, in the past two centuries, hundreds of animals have also been part of the 44 U.S. presidential administrations.
In many cases, these unelected animal residents tracking through 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue were probably viewed by the American public with even greater affection than their elected masters.
George Washington began the presidential pet parade in 1789 by bringing his parrot, Polly, as well as many dogs and horses to his administration. Since construction of the White House was not completed during his tenure, the president and his animals lived at Washington’s home – Mount Vernon, his Virginia estate.
Washington’s favorite horse was Nelson, the mount he rode when accepting Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown – the 1781 battle that ended the Revolutionary War. He also owned the first presidential dogs and the names of two – Drunkard and Tipsy – suggest that riding horses wasn’t Washington’s only pleasure.” Continued… Daily News.
“I saw that you were perfect, and so I loved you.
Then I saw that you were not perfect and I loved you even more.”
— Angelita Lim
“I wanted to paint nothing.
I was looking for something that was the essence of nothing,
and the soup can was it.” — Andy Warhol
My dear Mary:
You must know that I cannot see you or think of you with entire indifference; and yet it may be that you are mistaken in regard to what my real feelings toward you are. If I knew that you were not, I should not trouble you with this letter. Perhaps any other man would know enough without further information, but I consider it my peculiar right to plead ignorance and your bounden duty to allow the plea. I want in all cases to do right, and most particularly so in all cases with women. I want at this particular time more than anything else to do right with you, and if I knew it would be doing right, as I rather suspect it would, to let you alone, I would do it. And for the purpose of making the matter as plainly as possible I now say you can drop the subject, dismiss your thoughts–if you ever had any–from me forever, and leave this letter unanswered without calling forth one accusing murmur from me. And I will even go further and say that if it will add anything to your comfort and peace of mind to do so, it is my sincere wish that you should.
Do not understand by this that I wish to cut your acquaintance. I mean no such thing. What I do wish is that our further acquaintance should depend upon yourself. If such further acquaintance would contribute nothing to your happiness, I am sure it would not to mine. If you feel yourself in any degree bound to me, I am now willing to release you, provided you wish it; while, on the other hand, I am willing and even anxious to bind you faster, if I can be convinced that it will in any degree add to your happiness. This indeed is the whole question with me. Nothing would make me more miserable than to believe you miserable; nothing more happy than to know you were so.
In what I have now said I cannot be misunderstood; and to make myself understood is the only object of this letter. If it suits you best not to answer this, farewell. A long life and a merry one attend you. But if you conclude to write back, speak as plainly as I do. There can be neither harm nor danger in saying to me anything you think just in the manner you think it.
Your friend,
A. Lincoln
“You think because you understand ‘one’ you must also understand ‘two’,
because one and one make two. But you must also understand ‘and’.”
― Rumi
Eskimo: “If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?”
Priest: “No, not if you did not know.”
Eskimo: “Then why did you tell me?”
– Annie Dillard
Thus in each flower and simple bell,
That in our path untrodden lie,
Are sweet remembrancers who tell
How fast the winged moments fly.
Time will steal on with ceaseless pace,
Yet lose we not the fleeting hours,
Who still their fairy footsteps trace,
As light they dance among the flowers.
Charlotte Turner Smith (1749–1806)
“If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.”
― Lao Tzu
The Snowdrop
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Many, many welcomes,
February fair-maid,
Ever as of old time,
Solitary firstling,
Coming in the cold time,
Prophet of the gay time,
Prophet of the May time,
Prophet of the roses,
Many, many welcomes,
February fair-maid!
Maverick Mist 