Luminescence by Paolo

If it could work in Baltimore, it should work in New York. As a new teacher, I can't tell you how encouraging studies like this are. Hopefully my kids will get to attend a school with a similar philosophy. http://www.boredpanda.com/school-replaced-detention-with-m/

To commemorate my new studio location on 23rd and Park Ave South, I started a blog! The first post is a bit lengthy, but I hope that this allows me to more actively, and effectively, communicate with the ever growing community of creative and beautiful people that I meet on a regular basis. Here's to hoping I meet a few more! http://illuminateyourfate.tumblr.com/

The most important thing to remember as the hateful Daesch continue to spread their ideology of hatred and violence throughout the world, is to recognize what they are seeking, and to refuse to give it to them. Atoine Leiris, a man who lost his wife during the attacks in Paris, puts it more eloquently than I ever could. "You will not have my Hatred... Friday night, you took an exceptional life -- the love of my life, the mother of my son -- but you will not have my hatred. I don't know who you are and I don't want to know, you are dead souls. If this God, for whom you kill blindly, made us in his image, every bullet in the body of my wife would have been one more wound in His heart. So, no, I will not grant you the gift of my hatred. You're asking for it, but responding to hatred with anger is falling victim to the same ignorance that has made you what you are. You want me to be scared, to view my countrymen with mistrust, to sacrifice my liberty for my security. You lost. I saw her this morning. Finally, after nights and days of waiting. She was just as beautiful as when she left on Friday night, just as beautiful as when I fell hopelessly in love over 12 years ago. Of course I am devastated by this pain, I give you this little victory, but the pain will be short-lived. I know that she will be with us every day and that we will find ourselves again in this paradise of free love to which you have no access. We are just two, my son and me, but we are stronger than all the armies in the world. I don't have any more time to devote to you, I have to join Melvil who is waking up from his nap. He is barely 17-months-old. He will eat his meals as usual, and then we are going to play as usual, and for his whole life this little boy will threaten you by being happy and free. Because no, you will not have his hatred either"

Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it's to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake.... A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential-as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth. You'll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you're doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you'll hear about them. To invent your own life's meaning is not easy, but it's still allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble. - Bill Waterson http://www.highexistence.com//illustrated-advice-from-bil/