Hiding in Plain Sight

By John Gordon

Time marches on, bulldozing obstacles, ignoring impediments and complications. It takes time to realize that there is no time like the present and longer, perhaps, to realize that there is no better present than the gift of time.

This is another volume of musings, thoughts, opinions, and silly comments accumulated over timetime appreciating life and loving the blessing of that appreciation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514468920

John Gordon

John Gordon has written and illustrated many children's books as well as worked extensively in most areas of illustration. When he's not writing or illustrating, he gives talks in schools and libraries and plays squash.

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Copyright © 2016 by John Gordon.

ISBN:       Softcover       978-1-5144-6893-7

       eBook       978-1-5144-6892-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

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without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 02/19/2016

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W

hen there is no one else to rely on, a man must rely on himself.

T he wish fathers the thought that births the action that considers the consequence that builds the chara cter.

T here is some good in the worst of us, and some evil in the best of us. - MLK

I could never understand why people didn’t appreciate my good intentions until I started trying to live by good act ions.

S ocial studies empirically prove that single parent households almost always result in childhood problematic behavior. Symptoms of alcohol and drug abuse, increased levels of incarceration and criminal activity, teenage pregnancies and out-of-wedlock births, lower high school graduation rates, higher unemployment, and exaggerated senses of entitlement resulting in expectations of dependency on over-burdened welfare systems, are but a few of the more obvious corollaries. Our pre-socialist government currently subsidizes day care, before and after school care, multiple and redundant food and welfare programs, transportation services, nursing homes, and many other services that have historically, and traditionally been provided by conventional fami lies.

O nly he who believes is obedient. Only he who is obedient believes. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I t is nearly impossible to provide light to someone who chooses to live in darkness. You can’t tell a know-it-all anyt hing.

A s I’ve begun to discover new ways of looking at old things, I’ve noticed that many old things have begun to look new.

C haracter is developed by the daily discipline of duties done.

M emory too well preserved can be a poisonous weed in the ever-changing, ever-growing garden of the mind.

I give myself a chance to live today by seeing yesterday, not as I wish it had been, but how it actually was. I conclude that all experience is inevitably g race.

M y joy is in calling your b luff.

C ontraception is a double-edged blade. The obvious benefit has overshadowed the fact that widespread use has made it easier to treat other people as transient partners rather than partners for life. It has, therefore, been detrimental to the process of forming families and h omes.

J ust the man I’m looking for, usually means someone wants something from you. Calling a man, boss, is really a subconscious form of condescen sion.

T he two biggest official lies out of Washington these days are the counter-exaggerations of unemployment and immigration figures. Both are understated by half. There are twice as many people out of work and twice as many illegal immigrants in this country than we are told, and are expected to believe, by our deceitful govern ment.

A s to our country’s current economic disaster: the left blames Wall Street, the wealthy, and deregulation, the right blames Fannie May, Freddie Mac, the Community Re-Investment Act, and the welfare state sense of entitlement. It’s both; the culture we have developed has nurtured a deadly combination of guilt and g reed.

S ee your life today as your life. If you don’t take care of it, if you don’t make plans and dream dreams, who will? You are not second to anybody or anything. There is a place, many places on God’s earth where you come first. Put yourself first. The infant, that little baby, the child inside of you needs to feel loved and safe. Just as you nurture and protect your own children, you must protect yourself. Nobody needs to try to recreate the abusive situations in which they were raised to feel stable, safe, or comfort able.

E very morning I wake up sore. My bones ache, everything hurts. Sometimes I feel so very unappreciated. I worry about my family, my wife, and my daughter. I worry about my dogs, the cats, my home, and job. I worry about tomorrow. I want everybody I love to be happy and healthy. Sometimes I wake up from the craziest dreams. Out of the blue, I burst out laughing at some goofy thought that suddenly coursed through my brain. I forget things all the time. I find myself in places I didn’t expect to be, and I catch people looking strangely at me; like my hair is sticking straight up, or I forgot to put pants on. Egad, I’m getting to be just like my Mother. Happy Mother’s Day, Shirley. I love us just the way we are.

H e, who believes what he knows, shall soon know more clearly what he beli eves.

A ll good deeds are truly good when done in pri vate.

B e leery of laws that profess to help.

T he core message of all 85 Federalist Papers is a limited and enumerated government of, by, and ultimately for the pe ople.

W hen I persevere through a trial, I receive a special measure of ins ight.

H ow far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and the strong, because someday in life you will have been all of these. - George Washington

T hose who sustain a close companionship with wisdom tend to be more tender, compassionate, sympathetic, and tolerant than those whose world revolves around themse lves.

I t is much too easy to believe that now is for ever.

Y ou ain’t gonna learn what you don’t wanna know. - Robert Hunter

W hen I look to others to complete me I am always disappointed. If they do not love me enough I feel furious and belittled that I have compromised my self.

I ntellectuals are cynical, and cynics have never built a cathedral. - Henry Kissinger

T he absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously. - Kissinger

W e are all meant to shine, to radiate in order to manifest the glory withi n us.

M y deepest fear is that I am inadequate, that I don’t measure up. Who am I to be strong, self-reliant, intelligent, talented, handsome, healthy, and fabulous? Actually, who am I not to be all those th ings?

L ife can be a journey of wonder and delight if I do not interfere, or let my expectations override my sense of accept ance.

T he companionship of another gives us perspective, gives us objectivity, gives us courage in threatening situations. Having another stand beside us tempers our stubbornness and softens our intolerance. Another offers another opi nion.

S uddenly my country has decided that if I don’t approve of same-sex marriage, then I am a b igot.

P rudence