“There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night.” – Albert Camus
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Thought For the Day: There Is No Sun Without Shadow, and It Is Essential To Know the Night
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Tagged Albert Camus, Essential, Know, Night, Shadow, Sun, Thought For the Day
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First Principles: We Gain Strength, and Courage, and Confidence By Each Experience In Which We Really Stop To Look Fear In the Face…We Must Do That Which We Think We Cannot
“We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face… we must do that which we think we cannot.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
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Tagged Cannot, Confidence, Courage, Eleanor Roosevelt, Experience, Face, Fear, First Principles, Gain, Strenght, Think
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Gary Thain, Part II
Gary Thain, Part II
by Michael Doyle
Painfully thin on Heep's stoic stage,
Gary Thain's bass set the tone of the page.
There in rock's mighty kingdom,
Came the mystic whisper of Sweet Freedom.
This kind of lifestyle takes its toll.
That's just the price of rock-n-roll.
Caught in the trap of tragic addiction,
It caused Thain's shortened life friction.
A tragic shock shook him to further ruin,
From the likes of which there was no undoing.
A quiet man knows the depth of pain
And even a wonderworld can feel inane.
The disease of addiction doesn't care
About wrong or right or even what's fair.
Talent and genius are beside the fact
Of pain or the toll this Hell would extract.
With a need for storied construction,
Gary Thain fell into his own path of destruction.
Addiction is the appetite for one's own undoing.
Once you have seen it, there is no unchoosing.
A charter member of rock's Club 27,
The pathos of self-loathing excluded him from Heaven.
Still, it's a stark and cautionary tale.
It has consumed so many, as their sensitivity was the fail.
(c) November 5, 2026 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Addiction, Appetite, Bass, Cautionary Tale, Chater Member, Choices, Club 27, Consumption, Depth of Pain, Disease, Fact, Fair, Gary Thain, Genuis, Heaven, Hell, Lifestyle, Pain, Path of Destruction, Pathos, Poetry and Poems, Price, Quiet Man, Rock, Self-Loathing, Sensitivity, Shock, Short Life, Stage, Sweet Freedom, Talent, Toll, Tone, Touring, Undoing, Uriah Heep, Wonderworld, Wrong or Right
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To Embrace the Moments
To Embrace the Moments
by Michael Doyle
Life is filled with moments to embrace.
There is so much of life's meaning to trace.
All of this taken in builds the right attitude.
It brings us face-to-face with gratitude.
There is no such thing as a life without strife.
Instead, it takes a happy attitude for a grateful life.
Beneath the worst chaos is the dream of beauty.
It is what pulls us through when life gets ugly.
The good and bad of life come down the line.
Its confluence is in how these mix and intertwine.
Every little moment is brought by every other moment
That has brought us happiness or inner torment.
Even the smallest things require a miracle to become.
It is like this throughout God's great kingdom.
However much it is that a madman has ranted,
Not one second of life can be taken for granted.
It is when we forget that life itself is the gift
That we begin to build that ungodly rift.
It separates us from all that God has lovingly given.
Yet like children, we can rest in knowing we'll be forgiven.
Too often, we allow life to casually drift.
We don't appreciate the little things of this gift.
In the details, we find so much that is good.
This, then, is how vitality begins to be understood.
We journal the happenings of any given day,
And in doing this, we notice the miracles along the way.
Things that once before we might have missed?
These become as precious as lips we have kissed.
When we begin to think on these things cosmically,
We begin to realize the potential of positivity.
All of the universe is a matter of relation.
We need only observe to take in this connection.
That which passed for the things of separation,
That which breeds loneliness and desperation,
This is but a state of unease leading to confusion.
All is one when seen beyond the grand illusion.
(c) November 6, 2026 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Beauty, Beneath, Chaos, Confluence, Dream, Embrace, Face-To-Face, Good and Bad, Grateful Life, Gratitude, Happy Attitude, Intertwine, Life, Line, Meaning, Mix, Moment, Moments, Poetry and Poems, Pulls Us Through, Right Attitude, Strife, Torment, Trace, Ugly
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Thought For the Day: Power Without A Nation’s Confidence Is Nothing
“Power without a nation’s confidence is nothing.” = Catherine the Great
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Tagged Catherine the Great, Confidence, Nation, Nothing, Power, Thought For the Day
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First Principles: Religion Is the Only Solid Basis of Good Morals; Therefore Education Should Teach the Precepts of Relgion, and the Duties of Man Towards God
“The education of young citizens ought to form them to good manners, to accustom them to labor, to inspire them with a love of order, and to impress them with respect for. lawful authority. Religion is the only solid basis of good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts of religion, and the duties of man towards God.” – Gouverneur Morris
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Duties, Education, First Principles, God, Good Manners, Good Morals, Gouverneur Morris, Labor, Lawful Authority, Mankind, Order, Religion, Respect, Young Ciitizens
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Thought For the Day: A Man Is Culpable In the Eyes of Society When He Escapes From the Jurisdiction of Its Mediocrity
“A man is culpable in the eyes of society when he escapes from the jurisdiction of its mediocrity.” – Edgar Varese
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Tagged Culpability, Edgar Varese, Escape, Eyes of Society, Jurisdiction, Man, Mediocrity, Thought For the Day
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First Principles: The Ear of the Leader Must Ring With the Voices of the People
“The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.” – Woodrow Wilson
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Tagged Ear, First Principles, Ring, The Leader, The People, Vocies, Woodrow Wilson
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The Breath In My Lungs
The Breath In My Lungs
by Michael Doyle
God brings light to the darkness,
He brings me peace from this harshness.
I lean on His love that is spoken,
And He restores my heart that has been broken.
I join in the choir passing out praise.
On all the Earth, through all our days.
I consecrate my soul to holiness,
Filling with His love what was loneliness.
He gave His Son to save us all,
And as I listen to sermons, I recall
His breath in my lungs gives me voice.
I feel this in making every choice.
In my baptism, I felt my conversion,
Bathed by the healing waters through immersion.
I have put off the recommendations of an old man.
Now I serve the Lord every way that I can.
God knows every way I need to grow,
And He understands when my change is slow.
With all the evidence given, I daily see
How God has given me peace with the Holy.
He gave His Son to save us all,
And as I listen to sermons, I recall
His breath in my lungs gives me voice.
I feel this in making every choice.
(c) November 4, 2026 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Breath, God, Harshness, Heartbreak, Jesus, Light, Lungs, Poetry and Poems, Sermon, Spoken
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Thought For the Day: We Are Not Educated Well Enough To Perform the Necessary Act of Intelligently Selecting Our Leaders
“We’re an ignorant nation right now. We’re not really capable, I do not think, the majority of our people, of making the decisions that have to be made at election time and particularly in the selection of their legislatures and their Congress and the presidency, of course. I don’t think we’re bright enough to do the job that would preserve our democracy, our republic. I think we’re in serious danger.” – Walter Conkrite
