What would you fight for?

D.H. Lawrence

I am not sure I would always fight for my life.
Life might not be worth fighting for.

I am not sure I would always fight for my wife.
A wife isn't always worth fighting for.

Nor my children, nor my country, nor my fellow-men.
It all depends whether I found them worth fighting for.

The only thing men invariably fight for
Is their money.  But I doubt if I'd fight for mine, anyhow
 not to shed a lot of blood over it.

Yet one thing I do fight for, tooth and nail, all the time.
And that is my bit of inward peace, where I am at one
 with myself.

And I must say, I am often worsted.

Self Pity

by D. H. Lawrence 

I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.

I Taught Myself To Live Simply

by Anna Akhmatova

I taught myself to live simply and wisely,
to look at the sky and pray to God,
and to wander long before evening
to tire my superfluous worries.
When the burdocks rustle in the ravine
and the yellow-red rowanberry cluster droops
I compose happy verses
about life's decay, decay and beauty.
I come back. The fluffy cat
licks my palm, purrs so sweetly
and the fire flares bright
on the saw-mill turret by the lake.
Only the cry of a stork landing on the roof
occasionally breaks the silence.
If you knock on my door
I may not even hear.

For Every Woman

by Nancy Smith

 

For every woman who is tired of acting weak when she knows she is strong, there is a man who is tired of appearing strong when he feels vulnerable.

For every woman who is tired of acting dumb, there is a man who is burdened with the constant expectation of "knowing everything."

For every woman who is tired of being called "an emotional female," there is a man who is denied the right to weep and to be gentle.

For every woman who is called unfeminine when she competes, there is a man for whom competition is the only way to prove his masculinity.

For every woman who is tired of being a sex object, there is a man who must worry about his potency.

For every woman who feels "tied down" by her children, there is a man who is denied the full pleasures of shared parenthood.

For every woman who is denied meaningful employment or equal pay, there is a man who must bear full financial responsibility for another human being.

For every woman who was not taught the intricacies of an automobile, there is a man who was not taught the satisfactions of cooking.

For every woman who takes a step toward her own liberation, there is a man who finds the way to freedom has been made a little easier.

Being yourself at work is not good for your career: Study

LONDON: It's often said that honesty is the best policy. But, being yourself at work may not be a good idea if you want to further your career, scientists say. Researchers at the University of Greenwich in London found that people who show their "true shelves" at workplace tend to be less happy than those who "lie".

While revealing your true character to friends is likely to make you happier, doing so at the office is not a recipe for promotion, they said.

Lead study researcher Oliver Robinson said, "You hear self-help gurus say that the secret of happiness is 'being yourself ' or 'expressing your true feelings', but that doesn't apply in the workplace."

"So in some circumstances, it may be that a polite smile or tactfully keeping quiet may be more conducive to your well-being than saying what you actually think and feel to work colleagues," he said.

The team assessed levels of "authentic self expression" in more than 500 volunteers to see how far they opened up to people they interacted with.

The results showed people were more likely to "be themselves" with partners, followed by friends and then parents. They were much less likely to show their true self to work colleagues.

-http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-04-20/science/31373021_1_researchers-study-career

selected short poems by Rumi

Late, by myself, in the boat of myself, 
no light and no land anywhere,
cloudcover thick. I try to stay
just above the surface, yet I’m already under
and living within the ocean. 

•  

Come to the orchid in Spring.
There is light and wine, and sweethearts
in the pomegranate flowers.
If you do not come, these do not matter.
If you do come, these do not matter. 

•  

Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy,
absentminded. Someone sober
will worry about things going badly. 
Let the lover be. 

•  

Let yourself be silently drawn
by the stronger pull of what you really love. 

Hope

  

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.




-Emily Dickinson

Do people from Barcelona hate tourists?

Spain has one of the largest tourist economies in the world. The tourism industry started growing in 1970's when dictator Franco opened the country to foreigners. And now, more than 50,000,000 people came to Spain every year. Tourism brings a lot of money into Spain. But, some people are starting to think that there are too many tourists and there's too much tourism.

When tourists go to Spain, they usually go to Madrid or Barcelona. More often, they go to Barcelona. The city is in the north-east part of the country, it has a beach, it's close to France and Italy and it has the best architecture in the world.

When you go to Barcelona, you can visit the many tourist sites, but everywhere you go, there will only be tourists. It will be almost impossible to find a person who was born in Barcelona. The old historic center of the city is now controlled by the crowds of tourists and thieves that rob the tourists.

People who are from Barcelona are not happy about this. Tourism made life for the local people difficult. The price of houses is now more expensive. Rent is too expensive. Food is not cheap and the 2 most popular languages that you hear are Italian and English, not Catalan.

On the internet there are more stories about how people in Barcelona want less tourism. And, there's lots of photos of street signs and graffiti that say “tourists are not welcomed” and “tourists are terrorists.”

We tried to find a person who thought that tourists were really bad, but we did not find anyone.

But, we spoke to Marta Cubria who was born in Barcelona. She told us that she knows about the problem but she does not hate tourists.

“The problem,” she says, “is that the government spends a lot of money on cheap tourism, not cultural tourism. The normal tourist is young, comes to Barcelona for a short time and wants to have an amazing experience. In other cities governments give tourists low prices at the museums and theaters, not in Barcelona. When I'm in the city, they don't bother me. I don't mind them.”

The tourism board that has statistics on tourism in Barcelona disagrees with Marta. The statistics show that young tourists are a minority in Barcelona – only 20%. 40% of tourists are in Barcelona for business. 73% of tourists are older than 35. Tourists also said that the best thing about Barcelona is architecture. Second best thing about Barcelona is culture.

Also, bcn.cat says on its website that 93 percent of people in Barcelona think that tourism is a good thing for Barcelona.

source: newsforbeginners.com