notable quotables

• " I experienced an epiphany during the proceedings, probably just after you spoke, that everyone in that room was trying to do their best, that everyone in that room was trying to make sense out of this mysterious experience we call life, and my heart went out to everyone and I realized that trust is absolutely essential to building a community. Trust and acceptance of difference and forgiveness. Maybe, most importantly in my case, forgiveness of my self."
  
  from an inspired and wise email sent to me by legendary De Anza English Instructor Bob Dickerson
  
  
• "Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it"
  Mark Twain
  
  
• "Can't" closes the mind "how can I" opens it.
  Posted by EWRT 2's Kenley Raney
  
  
• "Don't let life de-genius you"
  We are all geniuses.
  Dr. Wayne Dyer
  
  
• "It's about moments in life that are great but don't last. They don't go on, but you always have the memory and they have an effect on you."
  Sofia Coppola about her film Lost in Translation
  
  
• "The knowledge you need will not always be the one you want."
  From the Grass Roots Organizing Workshop
  
  

• "In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director"
  –Alfred Hitchcock
  Used as an introductory device by 1A's Yoshi Ikeya
  
  
• "Love All, Serve All"
  -Sai Baba
  
  Bumpersticker I saw on 880
  
  
• Dreams
  
  Hold fast to dreams, for when dreams go Life is a barren field frozen with snow.
  
  Hold fast to dreams, for when dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.
  
  -Langston Hughes
  
  Posted by 1A student Alfonse Pham
  
  
• 1/10/04 The Only Sermon
  by Andrea Ayvazian
  if we dug a huge grave miles wide, miles deep        
  and buried every rifle, pistol, knife, bullet, bomb, bayonet,
  if we jumped upon fleets of tanks with tool boxes, torches        
  un-welded them dismantled them turned them into scrap metal
  if every light-skinned man in a silk tie said        
  to every dark-skinned man in a turban        
  I vow not to kill your children        
  and heard the same vow in return
  if every elected leader agreed to stop lying
  if every child was fed as well as racehorses bred to win derbies
  if every person with a second home gave it to a person with no home
  if every mother buried her parents not her sons and daughters
  if every person who has enough said out loud I have enough
  if every person violent in the name of God were to find God
  we would grow silent, still for a moment, a lifetime
  we would hear infants nursing at the breast
  hummingbirds hovering in flight
  we would touch a canyon wall and feel the earth vibrate
  we would hear two lovers sigh across the ocean
  we would watch old wounds grow new flesh and jagged scars disappear        
  as time was layered upon time we would slowly be ready to begin.
  
  E-mailed by former SBCC student Heather Harkness
  
  
• 11/20/03 The greatest treasures of life are love, peace and happiness. The only way to increase these treasures, is to give them away.
  from Preety Aurora in 100B
  
  
• 11/3/03 "If you have only learned from one person, you are in trouble."
  Don Meyer
  
  
• 9/24/03 "Even if you aren't loved, still love them."
  Don Meyer--basketball coach (although this applies to teachers, parents, friends, enemies, animals, rocks, etc.)
  
  
• 8/28/03 "The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassions, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen."
  Elizabeth Kubler-Ross sent in by EWRT 100b student Jason Kung
  
  
• 8/28/03 "A little love and affection in everything you do.
  Will make the world a better place, with or without you."
  Neil Young
  
  
• 7/11/03 "You are what you love, not what loves you."
  Donald Kaufman in Adaptation
  
  
• 7/8/03 check this out
  
  
• 6/1/03 "Nemo!" Said by concerned little girl in a sold out showing, when Nemo gets knocked out at the end of Finding Nemo. If only we taught our children to care about other human beings the way we teach them to care about animated fish.
  
  
• 3/20/03 "War is God's way of teaching Americans geography" - Ambrose Bierce
  
  
• 3/1/03 "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail." John Wooden
  Let's get ready for the final stretch.
  
  
• 1/31/03 Four questions of a successful life: 1) Am I always happy and cheerful? 2) Do I have constant peace of mind? 3) Do I possess mental equanimity at all times? 4) Do I have a feeling of love towards everyone? Remember, none of these questions depend on other people. You can be happy and cheerful even if your parents are crabby. You can possess equanimity even under severe injustice. Forget the future, forget the "real world," be happy, tranquil, accepting, loving NOW. Are you putting your happiness on hold until you get an acceptance letter from a "good" college? Until you find your soulmate? Until your parents accept you for who you are? Why? Don't you think people are miserable at Yale? With handsome beau-hunks? With the perfect parents? You can't change the way people treat you, but you can change your reaction to this treatment. Listen to the profits: Jesus says, "Turn the other cheek"; Buddha says, "possess equanimity"; Kurt Vonnegut says, "So it goes"; Risky Business says, "Sometimes you have to say what the f*%k."
  
  From an e-mail I sent to a former student