It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.

There are men who can write poetry and there are men who can read balance sheets. The men who can read balance sheets cannot write.

In Hawaii we have something called Ho'oponopono where people come together to resolve crises and restore peace and balance.

On balance my life has been a constant stream of blessings rather than disappointments and failures and tragedies. I wish I had been re-elected. I think I could have kept our country at peace. I think I could have consolidated what we achieved at Camp David with a treaty between Israel and the Palestinians.

Balance peace and joy are the fruit of a successful life. It starts with recognizing your talents and finding ways to serve others by using them.

Our platform calls for a balanced deficit reduction plan where the wealthy pay their fair share. And when your country is in a costly war with our soldiers sacrificing abroad and our nation facing a debt crisis at home being asked to pay your fair share isn't class warfare - it's patriotism.

And we ask the American people to play an important part of our layered defense. We ask for cooperation patience and a commitment to vigilance in the face of a determined enemy.

The number of stressors has multiplied exponentially: traffic money success work/life balance the economy the environment parenting family conflict relationships disease. As the nature of human life has become far more complicated our ancient stress response hasn't been able to keep up.

The man who has sufficient power over himself to wait until his nature has recovered its even balance is the truly wise man but such beings are seldom met with.

Nature is a temple in which living columns sometimes emit confused words. Man approaches it through forests of symbols which observe him with familiar glances.