"all the smelly little orthodoxies which are now contending for our souls" Orwell"What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring is to create stable communities where the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured." Vonnegut (and hey, I think this guy Carl Rogers might have written the instruction book on doing this)"It cannot be too clearly understood that some chief notions of European thought were framed under the influence of a misapprehension, only partially corrected by the scientific progress of the last century. This mistake consists in the confusion of mere potentiality with actuality." Whitehead
I can't say it as well as Kurt Vonnegut"But actually, to practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it. Dance on your way out of here. Sing on your way out of here. Write a love poem when you get home. Draw a picture of your bed or roommate.And hey, listen: A sappy woman sent me a letter a few years back. She knew I was sappy, too, which is to say a lifelong northern Democrat in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt mode, a friend of the working stiffs. She was about to have a baby, not mine, and wished to know if it was a bad thing to bring such a sweet and innocent creature into a world as bad as this one is. I replied that what made being alive almost worthwhile for me, besides music, was all the saints I met, who could be anywhere. By saints I meant people who behaved decently in a strikingly indecent society. Perhaps some of you are or will become saints for her child to meet."
pennywise, Modest Mouse, Matisyahu, Muddy Waters, Nikka Costa is the best ever, and well the others don't really matter cuz now that I've said Nikka Costa I can stop, Nikka Costa
Char your television
There are lots of books... the one I fell compelled to leave here is the Analects of Confucius (Thomas Cleary's translation is good). It is possible to be hardcore for soft things. And at the end of the day, when you want to have a little fun read Kurt Vonnegut.
Researchers, Teachers, Fire/Rescue/Medical personnel, esp. Captain, no Battalion Chief Scott Jalbert, Scientists, George Orwell-read his essays, Steve Johnson the worlds greatest 3rd grade teacher, Jim Lyndberg-read his words for the wise, Ian MacKaye, Ralph Emerson, Kurt Vonnegut, James Hendrix, Stanley Miller, Stuart Hameroff, Marvin Minsky-Maybe, Roger Penrose-probably not, Jack Kerouac-for his name rhymes and Dean, John Lewis, MLK, most of those people, most all people some of the time, Quntine Taratno, Robert Rodriquez, everyone loving and working for a better place, Parents who don't suck If I turn out good, it's because of Scotty Jalbert, John Lewis, Kurt Kerouac and ludicrously moral friends, If I turn out bad, well dammit