ancestor worship.

I keep this page bookmarked on my computer at work, quite like others have little proverbs and pithy sayings post-ited all over their cubicles. You can also check out a scan of the original here, I often do. It is a list of epigrams recorded by my great-grandfather's students at Morningside College way back in 1921 and published in the school paper. Don't you wish your great-grandfather had a following so strong that you had a record of what he had to say? I know you be hatin'.

Sometimes you just need to read a little something that gives you a swift kick in your pants. Something to motivate you to get out there and do something. Be something. I like to draw on the words of my family and friends. I like things to be as personal as possible. I keep little notes from loved ones tucked in drawers, wallets, and books. They might be meaningless to the rest of the world, but to me it is Pen & Ink proof that someone, somewhere loves me enough to sign their name to it.

I cut people's signatures off of birthday cards. The part where it wishes me well and tells me how much I'm loved.
Or the PS's off of letters because they are usually just a good natured afterthought.
I use xeroxed copies of silly things people have put in my yearbooks to mark my place in novels.
I have my autograph book from elementary school on my bedside table.

I wish I could have met the man who said "I want to tell you, the study of mathematics clears up superstition". I would have agreed, and told him that it also clears up a whole lot of crazy that I have bouncing around in my brain and when I have trouble dealing with the world I close my eyes and figure prime factors or common denominators or invent useless theorems that no one cares about. And he would have probably looked at his feet and I would have realized that maybe that isn't what you are supposed to say in 1921.

But I'm guessing he probably did a little of that too.