March 31, 2019
Dearest Readers,
A good Sunday morning to you, and many thanks for stopping by. Today On This Date has highlights from 1959 and 1992, Top of the Charts reviews the #1 songs and album from this date in 1984 and Charles Bukowski is featured on Philosophy 101.
Enjoy, and many thanks for reading,
xoxoxo,
Kaitlyn
On This Date:
In 1959 – Following the Tibetan Uprising, the Dali Lama and his entourage cross Tibet’s border into India and are granted political asylum. In time, more than 80,000 Tibetans would follow the Dali Lama into India, where the Dali Lama continues to live as a refugee. Today Tibet is regarded by almost everybody other than Tibetans as a province of China
In 1992 – The battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) is decommissioned at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and put into mothballs. Commissioned in 1944, it saw 17 years of active service, serving America honorably in World War II, Korea and Operation Desert Storm and is perhaps best known as the site of the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II.
Top of the Charts
#1 songs on this date in 1984:
Hot 100 – Footloose…Kenny Loggins (1st of three weeks)
Soul Chart – Somebody’s Watching Me…Rockwell (5th and final week)
Country Chart – Let’s Stop Talkin’ About It…Janie Fricke (only week)
UK Singles Chart – Hello…Lionel Ritchie (3rd of three weeks)
Album Chart – Thriller…Michael Jackson (35th of 37 non-consecutive weeks)
– Chart data courtesy of Billboard (US) and Official Charts Company (UK).
Numbers Racket
10,690: the continuous number of days the US has been at war.
22.168: the number of dollars, in trillions, of America’s national debt. – Source: usdebtclock.org
591: number of days until Election Day 2020.
Philosophy 101
I had always been good company for myself.
Charles Bukowski
We must like ourselves. Consider this: we are the only person we will see every day of our lives. Parents, spouses, kids, and friends will come and go, but every morning there we are, looking the mirror, our reflection staring back at us.
Do we like what we see? If we are going to have any sort of internal peace and happiness, any sort of anchor for a good life, that answer must be yes. We must be happy to see our reflection in the mirror every day.
Now, we do not want to be in love with ourselves, but we must be able to be alone in the same room with ourselves. We must be comfortable being alone from time to time though, of course, we do not need to be hermits.
This isn’t always easy. We have faults and some of us dwell on our faults and let them overcome and define us. Our instincts tell us something is wrong and we do it anyway. Even if this act yielded some perceived advantage or gain, inside we are not happy with ourselves. Some are determined to do better next time, while others say screw it, and repeat the behavior.
The best way to like yourself is to live the life you were meant to live, to be completely in tune with who you are and what you were meant to accomplish in this life. To do this, four traits are helpful:
– Have a plan for your life. Know where you want to go and how you want to get there. Listen to your heart and trust your instincts.
– Execute that plan every day. Not some days and not others, not some years and not others. Be on your path every day.
– Come back strong from the inevitable setbacks because there will be many. You cannot let the early reverses get you down.
– Believe that success is there for the taking, that all you have to do is put the work in to go and get it.
Those that get on in this life have these four traits and if you don’t it’s easy to get them: follow your heart and trust your instincts because your heart will tell you where to go and your instincts will tell you how to get there.
Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) was a German-born American poet and novelist.