I knew a man who knew all about his truck, its engine displacement, gear ratios, you name it. But when I asked him about his blood pressure, he replied that the doctor said it was OK. I thought to myself: Ken needs to get his vehicular priorities straight lest the via dolorosa through this vale of soul-making be more dolorous than it needs to be.
Category: Aphorisms and Observations
Dark Moods
Like dark thoughts, dark moods are more or less oppressive depending on the hospitality with which we entertain them.
Institutions
Institutions too often value their own perpetuation over the fulfillment of their legitimate mandates. Examples are legion.
(This aphorism inspired by Chip Roy's grilling of the prevaricating FBI director Christopher Wray.)
Novus Ordo?
Giving a Latin name to the destruction of the ancient Latin rite smacks of mockery.
On Settling: Political and Marital
In politics, as in marriage, at some point you have to settle on the best available candidate, not the best. Politics is about better and worse, not about perfect and imperfect.
Qui habet aures audiendi audiat. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
“It Takes One to Know One”
Half of the time.
It takes intelligence to recognize intelligence in others. But the stupid cannot see the stupidity in others — or in themselves.
Needs
One needs food, but not sex; money, but not fame; ancestors, but not progeny.
Life in Duality
We think in opposites and we perceive by contrasts.
Marital Vows
The more seriously you take them, the more careful you will be in the selection of a spouse. Herewith, then, an argument for taking them seriously.
Becoming Educated
Part of becoming educated is becoming aware of how poorly one has been educated.
On Travel
Travel introduces a salutary perturbation into one's quotidian orbit. It reduces self-satisfied complacency, putting in its place a useful unease. Useful for what? For a renewed seriousness in pursuit of what finally matters. This is why it is good for the soul.
We easily get used to our own faults, foibles, and fatuities . . .
. . . why not then also those of others?
Marginal Notes
Used books often come with notes in the margin, notes almost always of marginal value.
Money
Whether or not the U. S. dollar remains the world's currency of choice, money itself will always be the ultimate currency and criterion of human seriousness and human understanding. Money matters. "Money doesn't talk, it swears." (Bob Dylan) "When money talks, ideology walks." (Lee Iacocca) Just ask Traitor Joe.
As if in illustration of Lee's line, Anheuser-Busch walked back their Dylan Mulvaney wokery when their bottom line felt the sag.
Awake yet? Crank this one up.
Getting Tough with Our Political Enemies
If we get tough with them politically, then we may be able to avoid having to get tough with them extra-politically. Let's hope and pray that we only have to prepare to enter the extra-political and not actually go there. For it won't be pretty.
But I see no good reason to be particularly sanguine. The Muse of Blog must be with me this morning: 'sanguine' is exactly the right word.