Seven Quotes

Confucius lived between 551 BC and 479 BC. He was a Chinese philosopher who focused on the morality of government, social relationships, justice, kindness, and sincerity.

His teachings are intermingled with Chinese traditions about family loyalty, respecting ancestors, elders, and spouses.

After he died, his philosophical thinking became influential during the Han, Tang, and Song dynasties. Over time, his philosophies have influenced other countries like Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.

Confucius lived during a time of transition at the end of the Shou Empire. He felt it was his obligation to put emphasis on the social values of compassion and tradition.

At the time of his death, a year after his son was killed in battle, he was convinced that he had not made a significant impact on his society. …

Not as simple as it seems.

And how to get more.

The gut feeling answer to this question is the United States of America.

It is obvious, right?

Forbes puts the number of billionaires in the USA at 614, being ahead of second place by a decent margin to China’s 389 billionaires.

Then it is the usual suspects of Germany, India, and Russia to round out the top five.

The strange thing about this answer is that it isn’t as clear cut as it looks.

When looking at Statista, they tell a different story. China has 799, the USA has 626. Clearly, there is some disagreement happening there.

Still, with the USA being the capitalist center of the world, you would expect them to lead the way (or be way up there). …

Seven Quotes

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Socrates was a Greek philosopher who lived between 470 and 399 BC. He has been credited for sparking off Western philosophy and for being the first moral philosopher.

Socrates challenged the status quo of the time, questioned everything, and disliked the concept of “might is right”. At his core, Socrates was motivated by the desire for happiness and wisdom through introspection.

He challenged conventional thinking, spoke up about it, and taught others to do the same thing.

In short, he was a radical.

He was ultimately executed for “corrupting the minds of the youth” by saying that he “did not believe in the gods of the state.” …

100-word stories are fun to write, but they are a total pain as well. Oddly, I find I thrive with the severe restrictions in place.

How can you develop a character, a setting, a situation, and have an ending with so few words?

Every time I write one, “I wonder how I will pull it off?”

And since I am writing at least one per day until the day I …. stop…. there is the added problem of having ideas and characters to write about.

While I do enjoy trawling Twitter for keywords and very short stories to spark the imagination, I would like to engage with the people who read my work as well. …

A story told in twelve 100-word chapters

In the beginning……

The puppies keep popping out until the runt arrives.

The mother licks them all, keeps them safe. But the runt struggles, shunted aside, unable to push through for milk.

I am a sucker for the underdog so I help him.

After weeks of watching, assisting, I can hardly walk away now. Rather than let the runt struggle, I decided to take it home with me.

He may be small, but he is tough, tenacious.

I know the owner won’t mind, she doesn’t want them anyway.

But I do, a fighter like that, well, he will be a great guard dog. …