The spirit..............................

 

..........................of life its ownself:

                             thanks Kurt

bad parenting........................

 

     However, government's responsibility for the depression was not recognized—either then or now.  Instead, the depression was widely interpreted as a failure of free market capitalism.  That myth led the public to join the intellectuals in a changed view of the relative responsibilities of individuals and government.  Emphasis on the responsibility of the individual for his own fate was replaced by emphasis on the individual as a pawn buffeted by forces beyond his control.  The view that government's role is to serve as an umpire to prevent individuals from coercing one another was replaced by the view that government's role is to serve as a parent charged with the duty of coercing some to aid others.

-Milton & Rose Friedman, Free To Choose: A Personal Statement

Congratulations...........................

 

...................................are in order.

Wisdom......................

 

.........................from our friend at Sippican Cottage:

Time marches on. You can never put the toothpaste back in the tube. You can never put Humpty Dumpty back together again. The past is another county. Whatever. But I’m sure glad I didn’t forget to have kids in the first place.

If you believe the system....................

 

...............has your best interest at heart, you might consider reading this post from our friend at Sippican Cottage.

On the importance........................

 

................................................of example.

I consider myself..........................

 .........................................privileged.   I suspect Greg Mankiw would concur.

On the benefits of risk taking......

 Over time, however, beginning in the 1960s and accelerating in the 1980s, the implicit understanding shifted from that of children as competent, responsible, and resilient to the opposite, as advice focused increasingly on children’s needs for supervision and protection. Rutherford noted, as have other reviewers, that in some respects—such as freedom to choose what they wear or eat—children have gained autonomy over the decades. What has declined specifically is children’s freedom to engage in activities that involve some degree of risk and personal responsibility away from adults.

My thesis is that it’s not just the kids. 

-from this Riskophilia essay

Because.............................

      We picked up our oyster loaves and once again were out on the pier eating lunch together.  He sat at the very end of the dock on the crapping pier and tossed sticks to the dogs, who gallivanted into the shallow water to retrieve them.  They swam back to the pier, shook the water from their fur, and dropped the sticks at our feet, waiting for the next toss.  After several more throws, they sensed a change in mood and swam off toward the beach, leaving my father and me alone.

     "It's getting worse, Jim," he said flatly.  "It's the scariest thing I have ever been through in my life."  I didn't know what to say.  I was in tears but couldn't speak.  Saying I was sorry just didn't feel like enough.  My dad sensed this immediately and changed the topic.  "You know why I chose to fly instead of go to sea?"

      There it was, the question that had been nagging at me all these years.  Now, on the end of the pier near the end of his lucid days, I was going to get the answer.  "Why?" I asked.

     "Because it was what I wasn't supposed to do.  Looks like you have made a career out of that, doing what you're not supposed to do.  I'm proud of you, boy."

-Jimmy Buffett, A Pirate Looks at Fifty

On shoe boxes and pancakes.........

      Putting a state-of-the-art digital video camera with a zoom lens in the hands of a fifty-year-old man on Christmas morning is like giving a sixteen-year-old the keys to your Porsche.  It just shouldn't be done.  There I am, yelling a litany of parental cliches like "Look here, Cameron," "Puddy, what did you get?" "Savannah, what time did you get home last night?"  We all turn into overbearing, obtrusive directors with some half-baked notion that one day we will assemble all of the footage into a meaningful chronological account of our time on Earth.  I don't know about you, but I can tell you that most of the videos in my family wind up in a shoe box somewhere and surface only when some kind of cleanup is initiated around the house. . . .

       I know I've captured enough moments when I hear Savannah say through my headset, "Jesus, Christmas morning with Cecil B. DeBuffett.  Dad, we're hungry.  Please put the camera down and make us some pancakes."

-Jimmy Buffett, A Pirate Looks at Fifty

This is what peace of mind........................

............................................looks like. 

A rugged individual.....................

      "Remember when you got thrown out of the sailing club for leaving the race and sailing all the way across the bay?"  I only had to think a moment about that major event in my mis-spent youth.  It had been the same kind of a day as today.

     "You bet I do," I said with a laugh.

     "I never told you, but that was about as proud as I ever was of you.  I mean, being the first Buffett to get a college degree was good, don't get me wrong, but that time you just decided to light out on your own, that was the moment."

-Jimmy Buffett, A Pirate Looks at Fifty

Privilege................................

 .....................I grew up in a home like this.

Apparently people are starting to notice that it makes a difference.  For instance, this book review, or this column review.   For a different take, check this blog post. All I know is I do feel privileged.

A father writes to a son.................

 You might think you want an expensive car, a fancy watch, and a huge house. But I’m telling you, you don’t. What you want is respect and admiration from other people, and you think having expensive stuff will bring it. It almost never does – especially from the people you want to respect and admire you.

-Morgan Housel

Life Its Ownself.......................

 ...........the joys of parenting — and grandparenting:

The Luckiest Generation......................

 Ben Carlson posts on the amazing investment returns (in all investment categories) available over the last 40 years and opines that the world will never see the like again.  Us Boomers have been lucky, plain and simple.  Too be fair, Carlson also points out that it wasn't always smooth sailing and beds of roses and that significant perils had to be faced along the way.  Won't be challenging his perception of us Boomers being lucky, but he left out our most important piece of luck - the people we were parented by,

Parenting.............................

 

as much as...........................

 You'll find that education's about the only thing lying around loose in this world, and that it's about the only thing a fellow can have as much as he's willing to haul away.  Everything else is screwed down tight and the screw-driver lost.

-George H. Lorimer, Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son

Growing up......................

............................I heard this often:

  While anything can be argued, certain things are known to provide better outcomes than others. This is as true of societies as of raising children. The answer equally should be “Because we said so.”  A healthy society enjoys a dominant culture that sets limits on behavior, especially regarding sexual expression, manners, crime, and societal obligation—and enforces them. By what authority? “Because we say so.” Everyone then knows the rules and plays by them. 

-Fred Reed, from here

I confess to being greatly...................

....................................privileged.