Of Spring, Wisdom, and Perspective

It's spring break.  You shouldn't be reading this.  If you can't help yourself, I will keep it short and sweet. 

We made it to April.  That means those long dreary and often cold months of January, February, and March are behind us.  The days of coming to school and going home in the dark are past, and we are gearing up for the home stretch.

Spring break usually comes just in time.  Steven Wright, the off-beat comedian who often looks at the world from a slightly skewed perspective, once joked, “I think God’s going to come down and pull civilization over for speeding.”  It’s true that we tend to go like crazy during the school year.  Spring break gives us a time to slow down and regain our own perspective on life. 

My advice: Get some rest.  Take it easy.  Turn your brain off for a bit.  Your brain, like the rest of your body, needs rest and relaxation—and a good laugh doesn’t hurt.

So here to help you ease into the break are a few words of wisdom about relaxation and a several wise and not-so-wise points to ponder about laughter.

•  Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream.  --John Lennon
• There are times when we stop, we sit still.  We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.  --James Carroll
• Rest and peace should not be left until you’re deceased.  They are two vital life ingredients everybody needs and seeks.  --Rasheed Ogunlaru
• A day without laughter is a day wasted.  --Charlie Chaplin
•  Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion.  I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up afterward.  --Kurt Vonnegut
• Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.  --Victor Hugo
• I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out my nose.  --Woody Allen

Enjoy your time away from school.  Find time to rest, to relax, to laugh.  Come back in April ready to crank it up and bring it down the home stretch.

Phil

One last quote from Steven Wright for those of you going to the beach this break:

I have the world’s largest collection of seashells.  I keep it on all the beaches of the world….Perhaps you’ve seen it.