3 posts tagged “john adams”
1. When Adams was 21, he looked up into the night sky and saw "the amazing concave of Heaven sprinkled and glittering with stars" and thought that what he saw were the gifts of God. But he believed that the greatest gift of all was the gift of human reason: "But all the provisions that He has [made] for the gratification of our senses... are much inferior to the provision, the wonderful provision that He has made for the gratification of our nobler powers of intelligence and reason. He has given us reason to find out the truth, and the real design and true end of our existence."
2. "I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study paintings, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain."
3. To his son John Quincy he said, "A taste for literature and a turn for business, united in the same person, never fails to make a great man."
4. McCullough wrote of Adams as an old man in his eighties, "The simplest, most ordinary things, that in other times had seemed incidentals, could lift his heart and set his mind soaring. The philosophy that with sufficient knowledge all could be explained held no appeal. All could not be explained, Adams had come to understand. Mystery was essential. 'Admire and adore the Author of the telescopic universe, love and esteem the work, do all in your power to lessen ill, and increase good,' he wrote in the margin of one of his books, 'but never assume to comprehend.'"
5. Adams further said, "I find my imagination, in spite of all my exertions, roaming in the Milky Way, among the nebulae, those mighty orbs, and stupendous orbits of suns, planets, satellites, and comets, which compose the incomprehensible universe; and if I do not sink into nothing at my own estimation, I feel an irresistible impulse to fall on my knees, in adoration of the power that moves, the wisdom that directs, and the benevolence that sanctifies this wonderful whole."
After some skiing in Tahoe (Ivy actually took snowboarding lessons for those three days we were there--I stayed w/ normal skiing) we cruised back over to my parents' place just outside of El Dorado Hills. My sister Melissa's kids are looking great: Jacob (almost 2) and Will (10 months I believe...). They were the center of the action and fun w/ everyone. Some good presents were exchanged: Ivy got me the superb Beatles "Love" c.d. (based on the excellent Cirque de Soleil show featuring the Beatles--we saw it this past 4th of July in Vegas); Ivy also hand-crafted and painted two corkboards made out of wine corks in a wooden frame (I helped with the hole drilling, which impressed Ivy as she always likes to see me do anything "handy") and gave one to my parents and the other to Laurel. My mom gave Ivy and me two more classy leather-bound books from the Narnia series and we're looking forward to reading those with some kids some day!
Ivy had to go back to work this past Wednesday, but I got to hang out with Melissa, Mark and their kids and--amazingly enough-- all five of us fit pretty well in our little one-bedroom apartment w/ one bathroom. I just reminded everyone that this is how families live together in much of the world outside the U.S. (e.g. we saw about 10 people living together in one room in Thailand) and so it's no big deal. But they decided to leave anyway after 2 days with us for some reason!
I finished the John Adams biography yesterday. It was phenomenal. I loved nearly every page and have concluded biographies are my favorite books. It's always so moving to see the highs and lows of a person's life and how they dealt with adversity. I'm also always very sad at the end when the person inevitably dies, but inspired too to live life purposefully because time is clearly limited. In another post I'm going to add a bunch of great quotes from the Adams book.
At my job, I negotiate contract terms quite a bit with suppliers and customers and the last several weeks have been particularly busy because of the end of the year. So as a result I've had quite a few teleconferences with various legal people from other companies recently and there been lots of negotiating & maneuvering and polite arguing. For the most part I like doing this a lot and I've seen very clearly how just about everything that appears to be set in stone can be made flexible with enough pressure or financial incentives (no, not bribery or extortion).
However, this past week I started to argue and debate more than I should with people providing services outside of my job and I've learned it just isn't worth it. When our web hosting company basically increased our rate slightly, I launched into an epic email struggle with them in which I was digging up old email and pounding them for being inconsistent. You shouldn't just sit back and do nothing but the amount of energy I put into this was way out of proportion to the benefit I got. Something similar happened when our apartment manager wanted to take up some of our closet space to install a new drier vent for the people below us and I had a big telephone showdown over the terms of our lease about whether they could do this. Again, for the amount of energy I spent on this (and for an apartment we're going to be leaving in several months) it's just not worth it.
I also appreciate in the John Adams biography I'm close to finishing that in Adams older years he became less feisty and pugnacious and saw this as the effects of accumulated wisdom. Similarly, his penpal Thomas Jefferson--despite being a lawyer, president, etc--actually refrained from arguing with people directly at all. I believe he didn't find it dignified. Finally, on the presidential theme, it's interesting to see how Bush Senior and Clinton have developed a good friendship over the years after their bitter presidential race and they've united on common causes. I like that. It seems wise and the right thing to do.
