Joyce Williams > Recent Status Updates

'My head-- solicited in it's finitude; my heart, which is boundless in its love for the human family. I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against the odds. As I develop and serve, be patient.'
Rev. Jesse Jackson

'As the Stoics and Buddhists taught long ago, happiness cannot be reached by eliminating all "triggers" from life; rather, happiness comes from learning to deprive external events of the power to trigger negative emotions in you.'
Page 73

'Trees that are exposed to strong winds early in life become trees that can withstand even stronger winds when full grown. Conversely, trees that are raised in a protected greenhouse sometimes fall over from their own weight before they reach maturity. Stress wood is a perfect metaphor for children, who also need to experience frequent stressors in order to become strong adults.'

The term is 'antifragile".

This book is like a punch to the gut. Read the opening to Chapter 5 and you'll know what I mean. Amoral calculus.

'For members of every generation, there comes a moment of complete and completely emptying disgust when it is revealed there is only a hollow. A completely mallable thing whose primary use is not the opposition of evil, or administration of justice but of the preservation of existing power. History is a debris field of such moments.' (pg. 27)