The Quotemeister

When our kids were younger, we made the 1,200 mile drive to visit my parents in Minnesota nearly every summer.  We always took three days for the 25-hour drive, and we always stopped at a hotel with a pool so the kids could swim after a long day cooped up in the car.  In doing so we built on a long-standing travel tradition my parents observed when I was a kid.  

Eight-hour days traveling in a van with six people made for close quarters and short tempers, and one of the things Dallas came up with to help forestall contention was to assign the girls different responsibilities in the van.  One of these assignments was the Drinkmeister.  The Drinkmeister was in charge of the cooler, and her responsibilities included not only dispensing drinks en route, but also replenishing drinks as needed from the stash in the back of the van, so they would be cold down the road when thirst (or boredom!) overtook one of the van's occupants. Over the years the -meister suffix has been sprinkled into our family conversations in ways both whimsical and practical.

"Coleman 16 Quart Excursion Cooler" by sousvideguy is licensed under CC BY 2.0

That background will help you understand the title of today's post: "The Quotemeister."  Over the years Dallas has consistently been drawn to and inspired and motivated by a good quote.  More recently, he has begun creating amalgams of such quotes, many of which are also threaded through with thoughts and observations of his own.  He now has several letter boards, and he spends a significant amount of time pondering and puzzling over, assembling, editing, and preparing various quotes for these letter boards.

He asked me to take a picture of one of his recent amalgams, as he is preparing to take it off the letter board and start afresh on a new quote that's been percolating in his brain.  From time to time, I'll post one of his adapted quotes here so that you too can potentially be inspired or motivated, or led to question, think, and ponder.