{"id":5590,"date":"2017-04-23T14:22:14","date_gmt":"2017-04-23T14:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2017\/04\/23\/why-do-you-carry-a-notebook\/"},"modified":"2017-04-23T14:22:14","modified_gmt":"2017-04-23T14:22:14","slug":"why-do-you-carry-a-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2017\/04\/23\/why-do-you-carry-a-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do You Carry a Notebook?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If I am wearing a shirt with pockets, I almost always carry a 3 X 5 notebook and a pen in my top left pocket. People sometimes ask why I carry it.  I have a prepared response:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

It's in case I get a good idea. Haven't had one yet, but you never know.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And if I am out walking around, another element of my schtick<\/em> is my stick which is distinctive and also elicits questions.  Ask me why I carry it and I have a line at the ready:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Time was when I needed it to beat off women; but now I just need it to keep from toppling over.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I have found that the second line doesn't go over as well. While both involve self-deprecation, which will often endear you to people, or at least blunt the blade of their hidden hostility, the self-deprecation in the second line comes too late for some.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I cannot recommend the second line in all circumstances. The perceived machismo<\/em> of the first clause of the second line will sometimes stick in the craw of a humorless feminist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps the best advice I could give is to paraphrase a line attributed to the cowboy wit, Will Rogers:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Never miss an opportunity to keep your mouth shut.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That of course is an exaggeration. But exaggerations are rhetorically useful if they are in the direction of truths.  The truth here is that the damage caused by idle talk is rarely offset by its paltry benefits.<\/span><\/p>\n

My mind drifts back to the fourth or fifth grade and the time a nun planted an image in my mind that remains.  She likened the tongue to a sword capable of great damage, positioned behind two 'gates,' the teeth and the lips.  Those gates are there for a reason, she explained, and the sword should come out only when it can be well deployed.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Related: Safe Speech<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I am wearing a shirt with pockets, I almost always carry a 3 X 5 notebook and a pen in my top left pocket. People sometimes ask why I carry it.  I have a prepared response: It's in case I get a good idea. Haven't had one yet, but you never know. And if … Continue reading “Why Do You Carry a Notebook?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,39,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autobiographical","category-human-predicament","category-sage-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}