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, originally uploaded by Davidlind.

TIGER, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain? In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? What dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears, And water’d heaven with their tears,

Did He smile His work to see?

Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

, originally uploaded by Davidlind.

If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she will choose to save the infant’s life without even considering if there are men on base. ~Dave Barry

I’m convinced that every boy, in his heart, would rather steal second base than an automobile. ~Tom Clark

Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field? ~Jim Bouton, 1988

A critic once characterized baseball as six minutes of action crammed into two-and-one-half hours. ~Ray Fitzgerald, in Boston Glove, 1970

, originally uploaded by Davidlind.

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal. ~From a headstone in Ireland

Peace to each manly soul that sleepeth;
Rest to each faithful eye that weepeth…
~Thomas Moore

Better than honor and glory, and History’s iron pen,
Was the thought of duty done and the love of his fellow-men.
~Richard Watson Gilder

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes! ~Maya Angelou

One of the highlights from yesterday at the Richmond Folk Festival was the performance of the Mexican Sky Dancers, Tezcatlipoca Voladores.  This activity is a Mayan tradition going back thousands of years.  And it really gets your heart pounding in 2008 as they do this thing without safety ropes or a net.

Here’s a NextGen collection that pretty much goes through the performance from top to bottom.  They start out with a dance and prayers and then proceed to the top of the poll.  I have tried to capture some of their graceful and colorful flight to the ground.  They do look like they are enjoying themselves.

, originally uploaded by Davidlind.

Only Americans can hurt America. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 16 April 1953

The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Here in America we are descended in spirit from revolutionists and rebels – men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower, address, Columbia University, 31 May 1954

Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed – else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower