The Insanity Quadrant

A friend of mine at Digital Equipment Corp. showed me this little diagram many years ago. It's handy little tool, especially at those times when you find yourself wondering what the hell you're doing and why.

Judge not, lest ye be judged...

It only took me fifty years to figure out that it was far better for me to be my most compassionate friend instead of my harshest judge. 

Great Baseball Names

For years, I have been collecting what I consider to be great baseball names. There's a certain rhythm to some, others are just plain classics, like Babe Ruth. Here are few of my favorites:

Davey Concepcion

Johnny Bench

Vida Blue

Thurman Munson

Vada Pinson

Rod Carew

Minnie Minoso

Carlton Fisk

Ferguson Jenkins

Butch Hobson

Dennis Eckersley

Clay Buchholz

Mariano Rivera

There are many others. There are different categories of names: the stolid, straightforward "Pete Rose;" the almost musical "Mariano Rivera;" the alliteritive "Minnie Minoso." There are some very old fashioned-sounding names, like "Carlton Fisk," "Catfish Hunter," and "Thurman Munson." And the poetic: "Vida Blue."

Now there is a crop of new players, with interesting and unusual names that I can't yet categorize, like Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia. The sounds of their names are still new to my ear, and haven't settled in yet.

Give yourself permission.

To learn. To think. To do nothing. To make things--and no, they don't have to be useful things. Make whatever you want. Do whatever you want. If you don't know what you want to do, just do something, anything, that isn't what you normally do. Not work. Not make-work. Not your laundry.

Learn how to play. Alone. With others. And stop worrying about outcomes. Just play, as often as you can.