Music:  Bless the Beasts & the Children

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The link to this page is:
http://www.thepastwhispers.com/The_Difference.html
The Difference
The title of this page comes from the quote below, which is from the book,
"At Wit's End," by Erma Bombeck.  Mrs. Bombeck was an American humorist
who, from the mid-1960's until her death in 1996, wrote newspaper columns
chronicling the life of a suburban housewife.  She, also, published 15 books,
most of which became bestsellers.  Though her self-proclaimed niche was humor,
her writing was often both eloquent and poignant.  I created a web page featuring
my favorite column and you'll find a link to it at the bottom of this page.
All of the quotes on this page are from Erma Bombeck.
The photos on the page are from the state of Oregon.
-- Nancy
I want to teach you so much that you must know to find happiness within
yourself.  I want you to lend dignity to the things you believe in and respect
for the things you don't believe in.  I want you to kiss your grandmother
when you walk into the room, even if you're with friends.  I want you to stand
straight and look people in the eye when they are talking to you.  I want you
to be a human being who needs friends, and in turn deserves them.
There is a time to laugh and a time to cry.
I want you to know the difference.
Cherish what you have and cherish the people who love you.
Don't worry about who doesn't like you or who has more than you.
Worry is like a rocking chair:  It gives you something to do, but never
gets you anywhere.
Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare.  They are consumed
in twelve minutes.  Half-times take twelve minutes.  This is not coincidence.
The family:  We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life
sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding
shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting
pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending,
and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.
Laughter rises out of tragedy when you need it the most, and rewards
you for your courage.
Have you any idea how many children it takes to turn off one light in
the kitchen?  Three.  It takes one to say 'What light?' and two more
to say 'I didn't turn it on.'
Thanks to my mother, not a single cardboard box has found its way back into society.
We receive gifts in boxes from stores that went out of business twenty years ago.
It goes without saying that you should never have more children than
you have car windows.
When you look like your passport photo, it's time to go home.
It's disconcerting to wake up one morning and discover that while you
were asleep you went out of style.
I have set up my own rules about eating food:  Never eat anything you can't pronounce
and beware of food that's described as, "People say it tastes like chicken."
I never leaf through a copy of National Geographic without realizing how lucky
we are to live in a society where it is traditional to wear clothes.
My favorite Erma Bombeck column:
"Green, Green Grass of Home"