“I would love to believe that when I die I will live again. That some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.

The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there’s little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye, and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.”

– Carl Sagan

“Do. Or do not. There is no try”

– Yoda

Today is celebrated by fans as Star Wars Day. The pun is pretty obvious, “May the Fourth be with you”. In observance of this day, I wanted to share the Yoda-ism above. It’s one of my favorite quotes from the movies.

It’s beautiful in it’s simplicity. All too often when we are tasked with doing something we say to ourselves or others, “I’ll try…”. It gives you an out right away. You’re allowing that you could fail.

But if you say “I will”, it changes your perspective. It’s no longer luck or chance that that dictates if you will do what you are setting out to accomplish, but a matter of time, effort and dedication that will see you through to the goal.

“People think of education as something that they can finish, and what’s more, when they finish, it’s a rite of passage. You’re finished with school. You’re no more a child and therefore anything that reminds you of school, reading books, having ideas, asking questions … that’s kid’s stuff.

Now you’re an adult. You don’t have to do that sort of thing anymore. You have everybody looking forward to no longer learning, and you make them ashamed afterward of going back to learning. If you have a system of education using computers, then anyone, any age, can learn by themselves and can continue to be interested.

If you enjoy learning, there’s no reason why you should stop at a given age. It seems to me, that when it’s time to die, and that will come to all of us, there would be a certain pleasure in thinking that you had utilized your life well, that you had learned as much as you could, gathered in as much as possible of the universe, and enjoyed it. There’s only this one universe and only this one lifetime to try to grasp it, and while it is inconceivable that anyone can grasp more than a tiny portion of it, they can at least do that much. What a tragedy just to pass through and get nothing out of it.”

–Isaac Asimov, from an interview with Bill Moyers in 1988