Insurance Quotes

I just finished my first week selling insurance and I have to say I think that it went rather well. I met a lot of very nice people and I believe that I'll be able to do a lot of good for them - and make a decent living of doing so.

The people who work in the insurance field are likable and friendly, generally bright and considerate. The customers run the entire spectrum of the human race and have needs as diverse as one could imagine. There are enough prospects available that I never need to chase or cajole people who don't know they need my products, and the products I sell are affordable enough that they fit in just about every budget.

I can honestly say I feel good about what I do. That feels nice.

So, you ask, what's with the picture of the former prime minister? Well, we have two quotes posted in the office. The first is from Winston Churchill:

“If I had my way, I would write the word ‘Insure” over the door of every cottage, and upon the blotting book of every public man; because I am convinced that for sacrifices that are inconceivably small, families can be secured against catastrophes which otherwise would smash them up forever.

It is our duty to arrest the ghastly waste not merely of human happiness, but of national health and strength which follows when, through the death of the breadwinner, the frail boat in which the fortunes of the family are embarked founders and the women and children are left to struggle helplessly on the dark waters of a friendless world.”


Winston Spencer Churchill
Manchester, England May 23, 1909

The second is from JFK:

THE LIFE INSURANCE AGENT

I can think of no more effective person in advancing our freedom to live as we choose than the insurance agent. This person knows the economic and human pulse of the country as few people may, for they walk all streets of American life and they sit down and talk with the youth and the mature and the aged. They know their wants. They help them to help themselves in times of need. They build, for they help others to build. They insure the future. They are respected, and they are friends.


- John F. Kennedy

Self Determination

Charles Darwin to receive apology from the Church of England for rejecting evolution

The Church of England will concede in a statement that it was over-defensive and over-emotional in dismissing Darwin's ideas. It will call "anti-evolutionary fervour" an "indictment" on the Church".

The bold move is certain to dismay sections of the Church that believe in creationism and regard Darwin's views as directly opposed to traditional Christian teaching.

The whole of the Telegraph article from which this is reprinted may be found here.

It Is By The Smallest Increments We Take The Biggest Steps

I registered to vote yesterday.

This means that I am now a resident of Washington State.

I've been here four months, but I wasn't a resident. I'll get a Washington State license soon, and re-register my car. Soon I'll have a job. And a place to live. At some point in the not too distant future, I'll own a home in this state.

None of those things are what will have determined residency, though. The fact that yesterday I filled out a voter registration card and mailed it make me a resident of Washington State.

Since before I could conceive of distinctions like states and borders, I've been a resident of California, and I still have an abiding affection for the state. I knew as soon as I arrived in Washington that this is where I belong, but I felt the strangest sense of disloyalty and guilt in filling out that voter registration card.

That feeling of guilt is gone now, though, and I am glad to finally make it official. It won't really be home until my wife is here, and I won't be settled until we have our dogs. I won't be truly content until we have a home, but at least now I can be counted amongst my people - the people of Washington State.