A smorgasbord of things I remember people saying through the years.

From Ivan Jantz during an especially bad rainy spell when the roads were treacherous to say the least—“You can’t drive slow on these roads.  You need to drive fast enough so you have enough speed to get back out of the ditch if you slide into it.”  (Rumor had it that he ran south of 50 m.p.h. on those roads.)

From Charles Schmidt when I was stammering my way through why it had taken so long to get the job I was assigned to done—”Computers never lie.”

From David Toews on running cattle—“I’ve never lost money on cattle, although there have been a few times when the manure got pretty expensive.”

From Uncle Dewayne in bible study on raising children—“Some parents think their child is naturally tended to grumpiness if their personality leans that way.  But this can be trained out of them if started at an early enough age.”

From Uncle Mark when I was stuck between two parties that weren’t happy with each other—“You can expect three things to happen.  1. You’ll get dirty.  2. You’ll need to back up.  3. When it’s over, you be thankful you went through it.”

From Sam Wehkamp on dieting—“You figure like everyone else that your heart only has so many beats in it right?  I mean, when you die that’s how many beats it had, correct?  So don’t jump on the treadmill.  It will only go through the heartbeats that much faster, and you’ll die sooner.”

From Sam Wehkamp on winning a fight—“Never grab hold of something you can’t turn loose of.”

From Sam Wehkamp on winning a fight—“Only show enough of your strength to win and no more.”

From Mark Nichols when I couldn’t get something apart on the tractor I was working on —“You have to be smarter than what you are working with.”

From Aunt Marilyn when she saw the copious amount of sweat coursing down my face— “When you live in the south like we do, you learn to glisten, not sweat.”

Anonymous—“You need to know when to be willing to use raw labor rather than wasting time finding a machine to do the work for you.”

From David Toews—“It takes rain to make rain.”

From Brother-in-law Nolan—“Sometimes you can work too cheap and then people won’t hire you.”

From Uncle Harvey on running a successful business—“Always try to be aware of the leaks and plug as many of them as you can.”

From Yogi Berra—“It was like `deja` vue all over again.”

From Albert Einstein—“The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance.”

From a preacher—”Any one of these three things can take a man out, Power, Wealth, or Fame.”

From Uncle Mark—“Every child deserves Love, Acceptance, and Security.  Every child needs to be taught Respect, Obedience, and Purity.”

From Richard Jantz when cattle needed to be herded across cornstalks and furrows that were 30 inches apart—“If you get going fast enough, it all smooths out.”

Amy Dresner—“You go where you look.”

Mary Chapin Carpenter—”We’ve got two lives.  One we’re given and the other one we make.”

Mary Karr—”Prayer, getting on your knees, makes you the right size.  You do it to teach yourself something.”

Anonymous—“Faith is a choice like anything else.  But thinking it through at the final hour is absurdity.  You can only try it out.”

Paulo Coelho—“Maybe the journey isn’t about becoming anything.  Maybe it’s about unbecoming everything that isn’t really you, so that you can be who were meant to be in the first place.”

Anonymous—“Adults can’t be abandoned, they abandon themselves.”

Anonymous—“In the end all that matters are three things—How much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.”

World War Two Pilot—“No profanity on the intercom.  It doesn’t say anything.”

Anonymous—“You can always create a short-term commotion to get a bit of attention.  But you can’t possibly hype your way into being trusted.”

Robert Schmidt preaching about a near death experience involving his bailer—“And I almost rung the bell.”

Grandma Isaac when the conversations got a little too critical—“We just don’t know about these things.”

Nathan Unruh when the lawn mower he was trying to start for the auctioneer wouldn’t start—“Don’t know what’s wrong with it.  It ran the last time it ran.”

Deacon Dale on saving money because—“Hard times are coming.”

Jeff Schmidt on being seasick—”I was s-s-so s-s-sick I threw up everything since s-s-s-second grade.”