March 1

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

— Revelation 21:3-7, from the King James Version of the Bible

March 2

Life goes on grinding up
glass, wearing out clothes
making fragments
breaking down
forms
and what lasts through time
is like an island or a ship in the sea,
perishable
surrounded by dangerous fragility
by merciless waters and threats.

Let’s put all our treasures together
— the clocks, plates, cups cracked by the cold —
into a sack and carry them
to the sea
and let our possessions sink
into one alarming breaker
that sounds like a river.
May whatever breaks
be reconstructed by the sea
with the long labor of its tides.
So many useless things
which nobody broke
but which got broken anyway.

— from Pablo Neruda, “Ode to Broken Things,” translated by Jodey Bateman

March 3

Win the championship? I don’t know, but it’s not a priority in my life. I’d be much happier if I knew that my players were going to make society better, who had good families and who took care of the people around them. I’d get more satisfaction out of that than a title. I would love to win another championship and we’ll work our butts off to try and do that. But we have to want more than success in our jobs. That’s why we’re here. We’re here so you’ll understand that you can overcome obstacles by being prepared and if you educate the hell out of yourself. If you become respectful, disciplined people in this world, you can fight anything. If you join with each other and you believe in yourself and each other, that’s what matters. That’s what we want to relay to you all: that we believe that about you or we wouldn’t be here.

— San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, when asked by an area high school student if his team would deliver a sixth NBA championship

March 4

He’s a grown man. He doesn’t need any of you to tell him anything. He knows more than all of you put together. He understands the game. If he makes a pass and you all think he should have shot it, or he shoots it and you think he should have made a pass, your opinions mean nothing to him, as they should not mean anything to him.

— Gregg Popovich, defending his opponent LeBron James to the press during the 2013 NBA finals.

March 5

It’s like everything in football – and life. You need to look, you need to think, you need to move, you need to find space, you need to help others. It’s very simple in the end.

— Johan Cruyff

March 6

The most beautiful play in basketball is the pass.

— Jerry West

After he said that, I started thinking about it. You really watch basketball and study basketball, the more you realize, the pass really is beautiful. I’m not just talking about the pass where you look away or anything. Just the right pass at the right time to get somebody open is just beautiful. There is nothing better than that. It’s contagious — it makes everybody happy.

— Marc Gasol

March 7

The hospitable teacher has to reveal to the students that they have something to offer. Many students have been for so many years on the receiving side, and have become so deeply impregnated with the idea that there is still a lot to learn, that they have lost confidence in themselves and can hardly imagine themselves to have something to give. … Therefore, the teacher has first of all to reveal, to take away the veil covering many students’ intellectual life, and help them see that their own experiences, their own insights and convictions, their own intuitions and formulations are worth serious attention. It is so easy to impress students with books they have not read, with terms that they have not heard, with situations with which they are unfamiliar. It is much more difficult to be a receiver who can help the students distinguish carefully between the wheat and weeds in their own life and to show the beauty of the gifts they are carrying with them.

— Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life

March 8

Feminism is an endeavor to change something very old, widespread, and deeply rooted in many, perhaps most, cultures around the world, innumerable institutions, and most households on Earth—and in our minds, where it all begins and ends. That so much change has been made in four or five decades is amazing; that everything is not permanently, definitively, irrevocably changed is not a sign of failure. A woman goes walking down a thousand-mile road. Twenty minutes after she steps forth, they proclaim that she still has nine hundred ninety-nine miles to go and will never get anywhere. …

Homophobia, like misogyny, is still terrible; just not as terrible as it was in, say, 1970. Finding ways to appreciate advances without embracing complacency is a delicate task. It involves being hopeful and motivated and keeping eyes on the prize ahead. Saying that everything is fine or that it will never get any better are ways of going nowhere or of making it impossible to go anywhere. Either approach implies that there is no road out or that, if there is, you don’t need to or can’t go down it. You can. We have.

I think the future of something we may no longer call feminism must include a deeper inquiry into men. Feminism sought and seeks to change the whole human world; many men are on board with the project, but how it benefits men, and in what ways the status quo damages men as well, could bear far more thought. As could an inquiry into the men perpetrating most of the violence, the threats, the hatred—the riot squad of the volunteer police force—and the culture that encourages them. …

Like racism, misogyny can never be adequately addressed by its victims alone. The men who get it also understand that feminism is not a scheme to deprive men but a campaign to liberate us all.

— Rebecca Solnit, “Pandora’s Box and the Volunteer Police Force”

March 9

HAPPINESS MANIFESTO

I will invite happiness into my life by: Laughing more often. Wearing bold colors. Allowing myself to be silly in public, and LIKING it. Forgiving myself more easily. Forgiving others more easily. Looking for beauty in everyone and everything. Likewise with humor.

— Rose Card-Faux

March 10

I grew up in a family where my father always told me, defend your ideas when you think your ideas are good and struggle to get your story written.

– Samuel Eto’o

March 11

The taste for country displays the same diversity in aesthetic competence among individuals as the taste for opera, or oils. There are those who are willing to be herded in droves through ‘scenic’ places; who find mountains grand if they be proper mountains with waterfalls, cliffs, and lakes. To such the Kansas plains are tedious. They see the endless corn, but not the heave and the grunt of ox teams breaking the prairie. History, for them, grows on campuses. They look at the low horizon, but they cannot see it, as de Vaca did, under the bellies of the buffalo. In country, as in people, a plain exterior often conceals hidden riches, to perceive which requires much living in and with.

Nothing is more monotonous than the juniper foothills, until some veteran of a thousand summers, laden blue with berries, explodes in a blue burst of chattering jays. The drab sogginess of a March cornfield, saluted by one honker from the sky, is drab no more.

— Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

March 12

Initially, journalists and critics debated whether Tiny Tim was a put-on or the real thing. It quickly became clear that he was genuine, a lonely outcast intoxicated by fame, a romantic in pursuit of a beautiful dream. “These voices,” he told an interviewer, “really live within me.”

— Final lines of Tiny Tim’s obituary in the New York Times.

March 13

You move your head
as if a miracle of air was happening around you
and the miracle is you. There is an equal taste
in your eyes and the hot memory.

Listen. The words you hear only touch you slightly.
You have in your calm face a clear thought
which has the appearance of the light of the sea.

— from Cesare Pavese, “Estate (I)”.

March 14

Always on Facebook she is thanking someone for something—a visit, a DVD for the kids to watch, a kindness. Often when she posts her gratitude, the thanks come from “the Evans family living in this World.”

I thought it was a curious expression; maybe something from Ao’s Buddhist roots. When I ask her what it means, she tells me how crazed and desperate she was the morning after Rich’s murder—genuinely suicidal, and worse. But then, out of nowhere, her porch was full of people—strangers—offering to help.

If that hadn’t happened, she believes, she might have killed herself and her children. But they are not dead, she says. They are living in this world. “I like to say that,” she tells me.

— Linda Vaccariello, “The Evans Family Is Living In This World”

March 15

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Ye are the light of the world.

— Matthew 5:1-14, from the King James Version of the Bible

March 16

No more of all this talk about what a good man should be, but simply be one!

Let it be impossible for anyone to say of you truthfully that you are not sincere, that you are not a good man.

— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

March 17

I came to the crowd seeking friends
I came to the crowd seeking love
I came to the crowd for understanding

I found you

I came to the crowd to weep
I came to the crowd to laugh

You dried my tears
You shared my happiness

I went from the crowd seeking you
I went from the crowd seeking me
I went from the crowd forever

You came, too.

— Nikki Giovanni, “You Came Too”

March 18

Today when persimmons ripen
Today when fox-kits come out of their den into snow
Today when the spotted egg releases its wren song
Today when the maple sets down its red leaves
Today when windows keep their promise to open
Today when fire keeps its promise to warm
Today when someone you love has died
or someone you never met has died
Today when someone you love has been born
or someone you will not meet has been born
Today when rain leaps to the waiting of roots in their dryness
Today when starlight bends to the roofs of the hungry and tired
Today when someone sits long inside his last sorrow
Today when someone steps into the heat of her first embrace
Today, let this light bless you
With these friends let it bless you
With snow-scent and lavender bless you
Let the vow of this day keep itself wildly and wholly
Spoken and silent, surprise you inside your ears
Sleeping and waking, unfold itself inside your eyes
Let its fierceness and tenderness hold you
Let its vastness be undisguised in all your days.

— Jane Hirshfield, “A Blessing for Wedding”

March 19

I’ll recommend the guava flavour condom. When I was growing up, we had a guava tree in our garden and that’s a flavour and aroma that’s very good for romancing.

— Faustino Asprilla

March 20

On the afternoon of 10 May 1987 … SSC Napoli were on the brink of winning their first Serie A title in 61 years. A 1-1 draw with Fiorentina secured Napoli’s triumph. The city erupted. Exultant Neapolitans poured on to the streets. Days of partying began. Fans danced on rooftops, fireworks exploded, cars and buildings were draped in sky blue.

In his book Calcio, John Foot observed that: “During the celebrations, Napoli fans displayed all the classic traits of what has become known as the Neapolitan ‘character’: irony, parody and a sense of the macabre, obscenity and blasphemy.” On the walls of the city’s graveyard, graffiti appeared in vernacular “Guagliu! E che ve sit pers!” (“Guys! You don’t know what you are missing”).

— The Guardian

March 21

Madison Glass
Trucker Lilia
Tangible Tangeen
Silas Tremmel
Sahleil Cameron
Winter Rizer
Bowzer Thompson
Weston Coal
Scroll Kai
Capote Tru
Basal Tarragon
Aspen
Lucious Ravenclaws
ABCDE (ab-sid-eee)
Hirschal ACDC
Finnious Asp
Brass or Bronze
Rica Von or Ricovon
Ryder Mosey
Folicle (Folly) or (Licl) or (Cle)
Banksy II
Karinina Gap
Swish Persimmon
Dragon Stomp
Lavinia

— List of 25 baby names suggested for us by Sarah (as a joke) when we were trying to decide what to name Cedar

March 22

This is what bothers me the most. They said, ‘If you ask for forgiveness and remove the tweet and you say something to the effect that you don’t congratulate (Collins), then we’ll let you do the engagement and get the speaker’s fee,’ and I said I’m not doing that. Every gay and lesbian person will say ‘You know, LeRoy doesn’t speak up for the weak or the silenced. He doesn’t stand for anything as a man and he did it for money.’ Why would you ask me to reduce my integrity like that?

— LeRoy Butler, on being disinvited to give an anti-bullying speech at a Wisconsin church for tweeting “Congrats to Jason Collins,” after Collins publicly disclosed that he is gay.

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.

— Proverbs 31:8-9, from the New International Version of the Bible

March 23

Maybe it’s all thanks to the sun above me. I am always looking up towards the sky, that is how I am.

— Jiroemon Kimura, the longest-lived man in recorded history, explaining his longevity in an interview given on his 115th birthday.

March 24

Robert McKevitt, 27, was working at a warehouse in the city of Milford when the incident occurred last autumn. Mr McKevitt said he deposited a dollar in the machine, but his Twix bar snagged on a spiral hook. He then used an 8,000lb forklift to shake the machine.

“That machine was trouble,” Mr McKevitt told the Des Moines Register, saying he banged on it with his hands but to no avail. “They fired me, and now I hear they have all new vending machines there.”

The former Polaris Industries employee allegedly used the forklift to pick up the vending machine six times and drop it nearly 2 feet on to a concrete floor.

Three confectionary bars are said to have fallen out.

— “Iowa Man Sacked for Using Forklift on Vending Machine,” BBC News

March 25

In brief, this alone is the definition of introspection: the repeated examination of the state of one’s body and mind. I shall practice it with my body. What is the use of merely reading the words? Will a sick person have any benefit merely by reading about medical treatments?

— Santideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life

March 26

A true revelation, I am convinced, can only emerge from stubborn concentration on a single problem. I have nothing in common with experimentalists, adventurers, with those who travel in strange regions. The surest, and the quickest, way for us to arouse the sense of wonder is to stare, unafraid, at a single object. Suddenly—miraculously—it will look like something we have never seen before.

— Cesare Pavese, preface to Dialogues with Leucò

March 27

The afternoon was advancing and deep blue shadows were gathering under the mesas and in the fractures of the rocks, bringing everything to a pitch of vivid abstraction in the sinking light. “The clarity, that’s what I love about this place,” she said, as we took in the lengthening, sharp shadows.

— Charles Tomlinson, writing about Georgia O’Keeffe in Some Americans

March 28

I will anoint myself
with quiet:
I shall hear and listen,
look and see –
and not mind;
I shall watch a great commotion
with a tranquil heart
and say,
Does it matter?

— Charles Reznikoff

March 29

And [the angel of the Lord] said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:

And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

— 1 Kings 19:11-12, from the King James Version of the Bible

March 30

Here is the pebble
It remained stubborn in itself
Neither on earth nor in heaven
It listens to itself
Among the worlds a world

— from Vasko Popa’s “Dream of the Pebble,” translated from the Serbian by Charles Simic

March 31

There are only two occasions when Americans respect privacy, especially in Presidents. Those are prayer and fishing.

— Herbert Hoover, “Let’s Go Fishin’,” Collier’s, April 22, 1944.