Vote for me in "Your Big Break"!

katclark.org

please visit:katclark.org

Fyodor

I've discovered that I do like Dostoevsky.
He's grown on me over the years.

Anyway, I thought I would scribble down a few of his loveliest thoughts...

"The secret of man's being is not only to live but to have something to live for."

"We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken."

"The soul is healed by being with children."

"It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them -- the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas."

"Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it."

"To live without hope is to cease to live."

"To love someone means to see him as God intended him."

"Life is a gift. Life is happiness, every minute can be an eternity of happiness... Life is everywhere, life is in ourselves, not in the exterior."

The 40 Greatest Fictional Men

A list of forty men who should be non-fictional... in my opinion.


1. Atticus Finch - To Kill A Mockingbird
"Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."

2. Mr. Darcy - Pride & Prejudice
"In vain have I struggled. It will never do. My feelings will not be repressed."

3. Gilbert Blythe - Anne of Green Gables
"I wouldn't have your hair any colour but just what it is for the world."

4. Jason Bourne - Bourne movies
"If I even feel somebody behind me, there is no measure to how fast and how hard I will bring this fight to your doorstep. I'm on my own side now."

5. Noah Calhoun - The Notebook
"So it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna be really hard. We're gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, for ever, you and me, every day."

6. Han Solo - Star Wars
“Wonderful girl. Either I’m going to kill her, or I’m beginning to like her.”

7. Robin Hood - Robin Hood
"You don't just walk up to a girl, hand her a bouquet and say, 'Hey, remember me? We were kids together. Will you marry me?' No, it just isn't done that way."

8. Westley - The Princess Bride
"Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while."

9. Calvin O'Keefe - A Wrinkle In Time
"Oh, for crying out loud," Calvin said, "you're Meg, aren't you? Come on and let's go for a walk."

10. Ron Weasley - Harry Potter
"All's fair in love and war, and this is a bit of both."

11. Aragorn - LOTR
"I do not fear death."

12. Fred and George Weasley - Harry Potter
"Time to test our talents in the real world, d'you reckon?" asked Fred.
"Definitely," said George.

13. Mr. Knightley - Emma
"Maybe it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for one another."

14. Patrick Verona - 10 Things I Hate About You
Kat: "You can't just buy me a guitar every time you screw up, you know?"
Patrick: "Yeah, I know. But then, you know, there's always drums, and bass, and maybe even one day a tambourine."

15. Pazu - Castle In The Sky
"A girl just fell from the sky, boss!"

16. C.K. Dexter Haven - The Philadelphia Story
"Be whatever you like, you're my redhead."

17. Laurie - Little Women
"You've got me, anyhow. I'm not good for much, I know; but I'll stand by you, Jo, all the days of my life; upon my word I will."

18. Guido Orefice - Life Is Beautiful
"Buon giorno, Principessa!

19. Sirius Black - Harry Potter
"This is how it is--this is why you're not in the Order--you don't understand--there are things worth dying for!"

20. Alan Matthews - Boy Meets World
"You know, Cor, when I was a kid, Christmas was about appreciating your gifts because they were given with love."

21. Bruce Wayne - Batman
"This city just showed you that it's full of people ready to believe in good."

22. Tobias - Animorphs books
"I was used to being alone. And I had the sky."

23. Angel - Buffy
"Did... she have a date?"

24. Will Hunting - Good Will Hunting
Will: "Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Frost, O'Conner, Kant, Pope, Locke..."
Sean: "Well that's great. They're all dead."
Will: "Not to me, they're not."

25. Jamie Bennett - Love Actually
"I know I seems an insane person--because I hardly knows you--but sometimes things are so transparency, they don't need evidential proof."

26. Jake - Animorphs books
"Most of the time, I guess I have to go with being smart and sane. But I don't want to live in a world where people don't try the stupid, crazy, hopeful thing sometimes."

27. Luke Danes - Gilmore Girls
"...this thing we're doing here--me, you--I just want you to know I'm in. I am all in."

28. Shawn Hunter - Boy Meets World
"On this brink of everything I know, I can gain
An eyeful of the lost Atlantis in the human soul,
And a breath that fills my lungs with the air between two stars."

29. Benedick - Much Ado About Nothing
"I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that strange?"

30. Mateo - In America
Johnny: "Are you in love with her?"
Mateo: "No... I'm in love with you. And I'm in love with your beautiful woman. And I'm in love with your kids. And I'm even in love with your unborn child. I'm even in love with your anger! I'm in love with anything that lives!"

31. Indiana Jones - Indiana Jones
Indiana: "I'm going after that truck."
Sallah: "How?"
Indiana: "I don't know, I'm making this up as I go."

32. Bert - Mary Poppins
"What did I tell ya? There's the whole world at your feet. And who gets to see it but the birds, the stars and the chimney sweeps."

33. Char - Ella Enchanted
"Impatience is not usually my weakness. But your letters torment me."

34. Giles - Buffy
"Oh, Emily Dickinson."

35. Gambit - X-Men comics
"Ideals, mes braves, they're easy to embrace. An' I t'ank you for dat, at least. It's dealin' wit' reality that'll take some work. For all of us."

36. Christian - Moulin Rouge
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."

37. Wolverine - X-Men comics
"I'm the best at what I do."

38. Walter Burns - His Girl Friday
"You've got an old fashioned idea divorce is something that lasts forever, 'til death do us part.' Why divorce doesn't mean anything nowadays, Hildy, just a few words mumbled over you by a judge."

39. Romeo - Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet
"I defy you, stars!"

40. Clark Kent - Superman
"Enough, Doomsday! If you want to get your hands on my friends, you're going to have to kill me first!"

The way being short

Cheerfulness Taught By Reason
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I think we are too ready with complaint
In this fair world of God's. Had we no hope
Indeed beyond the zenith and the slope
Of yon gray blank of sky, we might grow faint
To muse upon eternity's constraint
Round our aspirant souls; but since the scope
Must widen early, is it well to droop,
For a few days consumed in loss and taint?
O pusillanimous Heart, be comforted
And, like a cheerful traveller, take the road
Singing beside the hedge. What if the bread
Be bitter in thine inn, and thou unshod
To meet the flints? At least it may be said
'Because the way is short, I thank thee, God.'

The thank-you note

A Thank-You Note To Men
By Mary Louise Parker

To you, whom it may concern:

Manly creature, who smells good even when you don't, you wake up too slowly, with fuzzy, vertical hair and a slightly lost look on your face as though you are seven or seventy-five; you can fix my front door, my sink, and open most jars; you, who lose a cuff link and have to settle for a safety pin, you have promised to slay unfortunate interlopers and dragons with your Phillips head or Montblanc; to you, because you will notice a woman with a healthy chunk of years or pounds on her and let out a wolf whistle under your breath and mean it; because you think either rug will be fine, really it will; you seem to walk down the street a little taller than me, a little more aware but with a purpose still; to you who codifies, conjugates, slams a puck, baits a hook, builds a decent cabinet or the perfect sandwich; you who gives a twenty to the kids selling Hershey's bars and waits at baggage claim for three hours in your flannel shirt; you, sir, you take my order, my pulse, my bullshit; you who soaps me in the shower, soaks with me in the tub; to you, boy grown-up, the gentleman, soldier, professor, or caveman, the fancy man with initials on your towels and salt on your chocolates, to you and to that guy at the concession stand; thank you for the tour of the vineyard, the fire station, the sound booth, thank you for the kaleidoscope, the Horsehead Nebula, the painting, the truth; to you who carries me across the parking lot, up the stairs, to the ER, to roll-away or rice mat; to you who shows up every so often only to confuse and torment, and you who stays in orbit, always, to my left and steady, you stood up for me, I won't forget that; to you, the one who can't figure it out and never will, and you who lost the remote, the dog, or your way altogether; to you, wizard, you sang in my ear and brought me back from the dead, you tell me things, make me shiver; to the ones who destroyed me, even if for a minute, and to the ones who grew me, consumed me, gave me my heart back times ten; to most everything that deserves to call itself a man: How I do love thee, with your skill to light fires that keep me warm, light me up.

The farm

Nothing Better Than A Journey To You
Justin Vernon
(my transcription)

from the moment the arms of the midwestern sky
broke down to the pavement
in a vehicle ragged returning
nervously brave, making my way to you

heaters have broken, it's cold every day
in the mysteries at the top of my mind
I've never reached an answer, I'm only given clues
nothing better than a journey to you

I ain't got a whole lot of things on my list
just the freedom and the will to choose
I've got you on my mind and nothing to lose
nothing better than a journey to you

in the thick of the night my stomach is sore
I think I'm unable to carry on
as the lighthouse gets smaller I'm closer to torn
nothing better on a journey to you

and sometimes I may stumble
and sometimes I wonder what love is
and I wonder what it's like
to hold true, so close to you

I might be wrong, but Mary I need to get to you
I know I have hours to go
I just said I'd be back and watch the sky blue
nothing better than a journey to you

I want to grow old with you, no matter how long it takes
in the back of my mind you sit
always setting in the motion, I know
nothing better that a journey to you

from the dark desert highway
to the mountains of Colorado
keep a candle burning at the back of my eyes
of you sleeping, ceasing

my words bleed from this guitar like you hear someone speak
like an oak to the wind in the trees
I know you're for sure with me but I still feel like saying
thank you and please

and every time you sneeze as a wise man once said
I believe in love
when the breast of the hills meets the color of the sea
like your soft cheeks meet the blue eyes looking at me

it's amazing trying to put into words the message coming truly in song
like one I am simple, our brains too big to use
nothing better than a journey to you

I won't be quoting some book to conclude in some proof
you're only 99 percent so amazing to me
but to see the smallest tree and the amount that it grew
at the end of a journey, there's you
at the end of the journey, there's you

The pipe organist

Emily Dickinson

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church --
I keep it, staying at Home --
With a Bobolink for a Chorister --
And an Orchard, for a Dome --

Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice --
I just wear my Wings --
And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
Our little Sexton -- sings.

God preaches, a noted Clergyman --
And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at least --
I'm going, all along.