You only get what you look for

Optimism and pessimism have been the corner stones for nearly any accomplishment anyone has ever done. The saying "seeing the cup as half empty or half full", has been a cliche for a long time telling people how they see things. There is also an old story of a wise king of Brittain, some say it was Arthur. He sent two of his most loyal servants out to both the east and west forests near his castle. To one he said," Go and find me the most beautiful flowers in the land". To the other he said," Go and find me the most deadly and vile looking briars and thorns". So off they went. Several days later, they arived back at the castle with two carts, one carrying flowers and one carrying thorns. The king came out to see and inspect if they had done their jobs. He saw the beautiful flowers and the thorns and told each that he was pleased. Then they asked him," We can understand why you would want flowers, but why would you want thorns and thistles your majesty?" He then looked at the one that was sent for flowers and asked him," While you were looking for flowers, did you see any thorns on your travels?" The man just pondered for a minute, then answered," Why, no, now that I come to think of it, I did not see any." Then he asked the one that had brought the briars if he had seen any flowers on his journey. The man answered that he didn't. So then the king declared to all the onlookers," These men went out and found both beautiful and horrid things! They now know that if they look for beautiful things, even though i'm sure there were thorns along the way, they did not pay attention to them for they were looking for what I sent them for. On the other hand, if they look for ugly things, even though there may have been many flowers along the way, they only found what they sought for!"

The moral of this legend might be clear, but I will explain it anyways. Basicaly, what you want to find in life, you will find it. If you look for troubles and stress and heartache, you will get it, even though there may be enjoyable things in life along the way. The same goes for the other, if you look for the pleasent things in life, you will find it, even though life may not all be a bucket of flowers.

Lit Circles section 1: Discussion Director

1) Why did michael use his and Richard's mother as an example to show that fire was bad?

He did this to use sympathy to further his cause, whatever that may be. Later we realize that fire was banned in the midlands because wizards used it prominently. I'm curious to see if michael was visited or informed by someone from midlands to declare this, or if it was just his judgement.

2) Why does Kahlan keep the fact that she's a confessor away from Richard?

Great fear came from people when they first realize that she is one. she claims that it would ruin her friendship with Richard if she told him. I'm suspecting some sort of power that she holds that perhaps only affects men, as she was planning to convince the wizard, a guy, to help her using a power. It also was used against the quad, whome im suspecting were men as well. She has yet to use it on a female of my knowing. Although it must not be a power she uses kindly as it was described as a "thunder with no sound" and she did not want to use it on Shar, however he wanted her to. Perhaps its a decieving pleasure that the power inflicts, i have yet to find out.

3) Why does Richard hide his knowlege of the book and the tooth, when it would seem he knew it might help?

The obvious answer to this is that he promised his father that he would only reveal its secret to the owner of the book. It makes me wonder if he was secretly with Rahl. Then again, he was killed by him, however evil people always kill even their most loyal servants if betrayal is suspected right?

4) Why does Zedd insist that Kahlan was not the woman for him?

This seems to relate largely to her power that she keeps secret from him. I still don't know the answer to this but im continuing to find out.

5) Why do people they meet along the way ask her about her finding a mate?

This question I think is answered with the fact that this story seems to take place back when women were not considered able to stand alone, or for very little time if any. Considering they have swords and maces and crossbows, this tech indicates that it takes place near the middle ages. That was a time that women who stood alone were considered harlots or witches. They seem to respect her enough though to brush it off as she has a power that I am unsure of at the moment. Curious to read on to find out.

About Terry Goodkind

When he first started writing, his first book "Wizard's First Rule", he became one of the world's best selling authors. Every book that he wrote sold better than the first and before long, over 20 million copies of his books have been sold. He accounts that,"As soon as I started writing Wizard’s First Rule, I knew writing was my calling." He was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, and attended art school there. Aside from writing, he has taken carreers in cabinet making, wildlife art, violin making, and restoration on artifacts. His wife Jeri and him have built a northeastern home by themselves, and are building another in the desert southwest, where he now lives most of the time.

Top Three...Pie!

Rank: #1. Lemon Meringue
#2. Apple
#3. Pumpkin

These are ranked, of course by my opinion as many others would choose something different, in consideration of sweetness, flavour, texture, and name(haha yes name)

Lemon meringue is by far the sweetest and many would argue that its not the greatest mainly because they cannot handle the degree of enchanting taste that emanates from this mouth watering delicacy. (enough vocab?) This is without any additives as some prefer whipped topping on their apple or pumpkin pie and some would not even try them without it. Lemon meringue doesn't need any additives because it comes with the included meringue, which makes it that much better.

Flavour is more of the biased side of the argument, as i prefer lemon over apples and cinnamon and pumpkin.

They all have very good texture. Pumpkin pie has no substance that you need to chew, thus making you lazy for your desert. Apple pie has substance but so much so that you still need to chew considerably before daring to swollow...unless your apple pie is soggy (in which case i wouldn't like it anyways). Lemon meringue has just enough texture to keep you from lazing about but just under whats needed for the main course of the meal...unless you just had soup... Which makes it a perfect go-between. All things in moderation afterall.

And finally the name. Pumpkin and apple are both easily spelled. (unless of course you thought pumpkin was pumkin, then you should learn it if you favor it more). Lemon meringue is considerably harder to spell and thus sounds like it is a legend in itself!

All of these i consider when deciding my desert, hence my order of rank for each. Some of you may ask what about turtle pie? Is not chocolate better than lemon? And i tell you NO! don't get me started on how bad chocolate is for you than lemon, plus chocolate is mostly refined and the taste you normaly find in say, a Snickers, can not be found naturaly. (and some of you are just wondering what the heck turtle pie is...well go research it! if you don't know your pies then you can't argue that lemon is not the greatest!)

Review, Jumper:

A very unique, if anything, movie that uses a concept that none have used before. Thus it cannot be compared to much. It was a fairly good movie through the special effects, the acting, and the interesting idea of moving at the speed of thought. What really took away from it was the plot. The main point of view and perspective was alright, but the order of events could have been a lot better. Also the character profiling was poor. The main character was hit more often than he hit his enemy. The story line went off quite a bit from the main point and sometimes trailed indeffinately. It was a dissapointment because the main idea of teleportation without device was degraded by plot factors.