It is essential that we remember the veterans who fought on our behalf. If we forget them, we deserve the consequences.

While freedom may be an inalienable right under the law in the United States, it must be won and earned daily. Do not take what freedoms you do have for granted as they can disappear as quickly as the Berlin Wall fell down.

Let the government focus on providing services and let the people monitor their own morality—which cannot be legislated. The more laws a society has means that the government trusts the people all that much less. Soldiers did not give their lives or lose their limbs and health so that you and I should squander their legacy and gift.

In the April 30, 2003 edition of The New York Times, an article, Art Auctions Buffeted by Events, brings up distress sales and thinner catalogs from Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and de Pury & Luxembourg, in what may be an uncertain season—war and a “shaky” economy can also effect superrich collectors and sellers.

Renoir’s “In the Roses” is estimated to go for between $20 to $30 million; Pollack’s well-known drip “No.17, 1949” is expected to go for up to $7 million, plus “Dancer” by Degas may go as high as $12 million. Then, there is a self-portrait by Cezanne (done in 1895 when the artist was 55) that may fetch between $15 to $20 million, which may be a bargain since it had been on the market privately for $50 million.

For the artist, the article, while perhaps factual, is strewn with irony.

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If there is any doubt that culture strives to contain our perceptions, thoughts, and vocabulary, try this exercise.

Choose two words that you use often and go one day without uttering either. You will be amazed at your mind’s desire to continue its pattern, and you will have to catch your tongue often.

The two words I strive to avoid are: hope and wish. While these words are not obnoxious, they add little to one’s declaration.

The point of this experiment is to speak from an original place and to know the true meaning and power of words.

For more about hope, read Trust | Hope | Fulfillment inside the main site gallery.

I was visiting a fellow artist, a painter. He lived in a small apartment complex in Santa Monica, California. His place was tidy. Art filled the walls of all three rooms. There was a canvas in progress on an easel, and art supplies were laid out on a large drawing table. A variety of oil paint smears covered my friend’s shirt and pants.

A lady was getting ready to move into one of the nearby one bedroom units on the second floor. She was redecorating the apartment, and there was a painter helping her. My friend knew the painter whose name was Sam. He was reliable and did a lot of house and apartment painting in the area. The woman went out and left Sam to the walls, wood trimmings, and windows.

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Most of us have heard or read about a “con man” who defrauded some individual.  Usually, the “victim” is portrayed as an innocent. Through some manipulations the con man gains the confidence of the person about to get scammed, which usually means that the “mark” and his money will soon part company.

Look closer.

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