The World

"the world is not respectable; it is mortal, tormented, confused, deluded forever; but it is shot through with beauty, with love, with glints of courage and laughter; and in these, the spirit blooms..."

- George Santayana
American philosopher and poet

Human Element

An excellent commercial from Dow Chemicals about the importance of the human element in life.

Excellence

"Risk more than others think is safe.
Care more than others think is wise.
Dream more than others think is practical.
Expect more than others think is possible."

— Claude T. Bissell

Vande Mataram

In commemoration of India's independence from Britain 60 years ago. This tribute was produced and arranged by A.R. Rahman in 1997 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of India's independence. Vande Mataram is India's national song.

Jana Gana Mana

In commemoration of India's independence from Britain 60 years ago. This tribute was produced and arranged by A.R. Rahman in 2000 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of India becoming a republic.

Lincoln Inaugural Address

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

- Abraham Lincoln
16th US President
1st Inaugural Address

The Fray - How to Save a Life

How to Save a Life
The Fray
How to Save a Life

List of steps in the music video
1. Love
2. Listen
3. Breathe
4. Imagine
5. Let it go
6. Believe
7. Forgive
8. Hold still
9. Hold close
10. Amaze yourself
11. Remember
12. Make yourself secure
13. Make everyone secure
14. Take it back
15. Let it go
16. Dream
17. Fear
18. Talk to someone
19. Don't lie
20. Don't pretend
21. Trust yourself
22. Cry
23. Accept
24. Don't hurt yourself
25. Don't hurt anyone
26. Keep moving
27. Regret
28. Forget
29. Make peace
30. Make love
31. Banish wars
32. Banish hate
33. Be free
34. Feel free
35. Stand still
36. Don't be scared of death
37. Have faith
38. Admire
39. Stand strong
40. Surrender
41. Dance
42. Smile
43. Laugh
44. Break
45. Touch
46. Have secrets
47. Share secrets
48. Know secrets
49. Relieve
50. Don’t lie to yourself
51. Release
52. Run
53. Learn
54. Leave
55. Trust others
56. Question
57. Be kind
58. Keep your memories
59. Don’t forget
60. Kiss
61. Hug
62. Scream out
63. Be true
64. Admit
65. Live
66. Release the fear
67. Secure
86. Open up
99. Say goodbye

Death is Nothing at All

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
that we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without affect,
without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you,
for an interval,
somewhere very near,
just around the corner.

All is well.

- Henry Scott Holland
Canon of St Paul's Cathedral

Frank Sinatra - My Way

My Way
Frank Sinatra

Lyrics
And now, the end is here
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
I've lived a life that's full
I traveled each and ev'ry highway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way

Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way

Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall and did it my way

I've loved, I've laughed and cried
I've had my fill, my share of losing
And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing
To think I did all that
And may I say, not in a shy way,
"Oh, no, oh, no, not me, I did it my way"

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows and did it my way!

Yes, it was my way

To Be Misunderstood

"Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Transcendentalist