What Makes People Tick?

"For the dead and the living,  we must bear witness."  --  Elie Wiesel Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. May we never forget; may Never Again be tattooed on our hearts.

Some quotes by the amazing and inspiring Yoko Ono. Dear Yoko,  You make me want to be a better person.  Thank you for being you. “War is over if you want it.” “ You change the world by being yourself.” “A dream you dream alone is only a dream.  A dream you dream together is reality.” “Remember, each one of us has the power to change the world.  Just start thinking peace, and the message will spread quicker than you think.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the United Nations General Assembly on 29 September 2014. The Times of Israel published the full text of his speech online. May the world listen, for a change, and see the truth of what Israel's Prime Minister is saying. "Our hopes and the world’s hope for peace are in danger. Because everywhere we look, militant Islam is on the march.  It’s not militants. It’s not Islam. It’s militant Islam.  Typically, its first victims are other Muslims, but it spares no one. Christians, Jews, Yazidis, Kurds — no creed, no faith, no ethnic group is beyond its sights. And it’s rapidly spreading in every part of the world." The past few months have shown very clearly that the 'Islamic State' does not care about Christians, Jews, Yazidis or Kurds. It does not even care about other Muslims who happen to think for themselves and disagree with the terrorist group's extremist views. American and British journalists were ...

Some quotes by Yoko One, found online. “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” “You may think I’m small, but I have a universe inside my mind.” “Try to say nothing negative about anybody. a) for three days b) for forty-five days c) for three months See what happens to your life.” "The regret of my life is that I have not said 'I love you' often enough" "There's a long life ahead of you and it's going to be beautiful, as long as you keep loving and hugging each other."   "I realized that if my thoughts immediately affect my body, I should be careful about what I think. Now if I get angry, I ask myself why I feel that way. If I can find the source of my anger, I can turn that negative energy into something positive."  "Women are put in a position of feeling embarrassed about their bodies. It's so ridiculous, but also astounding - we have to always be apologetic about having created the hum...

“Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky, We fell them down and turn them into paper, That we may record our emptiness.”  ~ Kahlil Gibran “A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people. ”  ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt “Jaime had never realised that trees made a sound when they grew, and no-one else had realised it either, because the sound is made over hundreds of years in waves of twenty-four hours from peak to peak. Speed it up, and the sound a tree makes is vrooom.”  ~ Terry Pratchett, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch “Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”  ~ Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky “The winds of change are alway...

In The Netherlands, the fourth and the fifth of May are special national days.  The fourth of May is Liberation Day while the fifth is Remembrance Day. "People experienced the Second World War in very different ways, depending on who they were, what they stood for, what they did or where they lived. All those different experiences are reflected in the different commemoration ceremonies throughout the years. During the national commemoration of Remembrance Day on 4 May, those various experiences come together and the dead are jointly remembered." (1) "On the 5th of May we celebrate that we in The Netherlands live in freedom. We celebrate that we were liberated in 1945 from German occupation in Europe and Japanese occupation in Asia and that since then we've been free from war and repression in the Kingdom of The Netherlands." (2)

It's a Sunday afternoon. The streets outside are wet - I can hear the cars driving through the rainwater that's left on the road. I should be doing so many things, yet "you should be..." is the last thing I feel like hearing from anyone today, including myself. I'm feeling a bit melancholy today. Feeling a bit over-extended, a bit worn down, washed out, used up. I don't feel like being productive today or doing my best to be great at something. I just want to be . Today I don't want clichés or upbeat statements that really say nothing at all, I want peace and quiet and maybe, just maybe, some positivity. So, I decided to look up some quotes on Goodreads to do with being happy, appreciating what life gives you, smiling through the tears, seeing the silver lining, believing in the positive... And all that even after saying that I wanted nothing to do with clichés today...

"When Personality Traits Match Job, Employees Succeed." It sounds so simple when I read the words, almost like a 'wise saying' that could be attributed to a great leader or philosopher of the past. Yet apparently it's not quite that simple because if it were, this simple statement wouldn't be "new research". A September 2013 article from Business News Daily explains: "Bosses may want to take some more time finding out what drives their employees. New research suggests that matching the motivations and personality traits of workers with their job duties plays a big role in the success of not only those employees, but their companies as well." So - let me get this straight... Research indicates that people are more likely to succeed at work if they do a job that matches their interests, motivation and personality. Wait, what was it that I wrote earlier about attributing a statement like this to a great philosopher of the past? How about ...

"Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace... You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one"

The Jewish Shema Yisrael and the Qur'an's surah (chapter) 112 known as Al Ikhlas share quite a few similarities. While in today's world many Muslims seem to believe that it is their duty to kill as many Jews as possible and the two religions don't always get on as well as they could, when one looks to the texts and the teachings of these two religions, one finds a lot of similarities. Of the world's three monotheistic faiths, Judaism came first, Christianity came second and Islam came third. While Christianity believes in a three-in-one package deal, as opposed to the only-one beliefs of the other two religions, the three religions are still considered connected monotheistic religions. While Judaism has remained a religion of roughly 20 million people or less, both Christianity and Islam have become huge religions with adherents numbering in the billions, in most countries of the world. All three religions have gone through many changes and developments since thei...