7.11.2023 – place the accent on

place the accent on
wrong letter, you’re going to
mispronounce the word

New York City Mayor Eric Adams was quoted in the article, Eric Adams, the Mayor Who Never Sleeps, by columnist Maureen O’Dowd in this passage:

“If you place the accent on the wrong letter, you’re going to mispronounce the word,” Adams said. “If you place the accent on the wrong moment in your life, you’re going to mispronounce your life. Place it on how many times you got on the train and nothing happened to you. Nothing eventful. That’s where the accent should go, not ‘Hey, this is my 900th ride and you know what, I saw a homeless person today. Oh my God, things are out of control.’ They’re not.”

I spent 20 years working in television news.

Working with a dedicated bunch of people who worked daily, hourly, to identify the accent marks that would mark the moments in peoples lives that would set the pronunciation of those lives.

It struck me, reading this quote, that a word gets one point, one part of a word, that is accented.

As the Mayor said, where that accent goes, can determine the meaning of the word.

Where the accent goes can determine the meaning of your life?

Simplistic?

Yes.

Too simplistic?

I am not so sure.

Right now it is hard to not point a finger at covid and say this is where the accent is in my life.

At least, in my life right now.

Over the years, where is that accent?

Do I choose the place or was the place chosen for me and all other changes and consequences in my life descend from that point?

I think I have told the story of how I wanted to be history teacher.

In college, working with an advisor, I had my course of study from a BA through to an MA all laid out.

I needed a foreign language and after three years of high school Latin, my advisor agreed that Latin was the path for me.

On the first day of college Latin 101, I had to fill out an index card with my name and overview of my Latin background.

The second day, someone from the Latin department stood if front of the class and read out six names, mine included and asked us to step out in the hall.

We were told that after a review of our cards, we were being offered an accelerated version of Latin 101 and 102 which would enable us to meet our 2 years of foreign language requirement in just one and a half years.

It was just an offer and we did not have to take but it would allow us to take another elective should we take the accelerated class.

Without thinking too much about, I took the offer.

The impact was far reaching as this knocked over the house of cards that was my carefully scripted course of study to an MA and it brought about this and that and another thing and in the end I spent 20 years working in the news business instead of a career in teaching history.

Is it that moment when my name was read out loud in a classroom in Angell Hall in Ann Arbor, Michigan and I was asked to step out in the hall the place in my life where the accent mark goes?

My life certainly changed.

I took another path.

A path less traveled on a snowy night with miles to go before I could sleep.

But I didn’t know it at the time.

Much more would happen in my life.

Still, the question remains, was that moment in the hall the place in my life where the accent mark goes?

I guess, only if I want it to.

Maybe really, in the long run, the long view, I stepped out into that hall and nothing happened to me.

Nothing eventful.

Things did not go out of control.

Things were not out of control.

Because they were not.

Nothing happened at all.

7.10.2020 – C is not an A

C is not an A
but a C is not an F
he told reporters

New York City Mayor Eric Adams was quoted in the New York Times article, Eric Adams, the Mayor Who Never Sleeps, by columnist Maureen O’Dowd in this passage:

Six months into the job, Eric Adams, 61, is at a crucial juncture. The honeymoon, filled with hope for a dynamic new mayor, is over. Adams’s poll numbers have dived, which the optimistic politician took with aplomb. “A C is not an A, but a C is not an F,” he told reporters, adding that he interpreted the numbers from tough New York graders to mean “We’re going to give Eric a shot.”

You have to admit when the Mayor is right, he is right.

A C is NOT an A.

But it sure is a wonderful sentence.

Also, as a social comment, a friend of mine recently posted a National Parks brochure about being out on the water in a local river.

The brochure had the warning that the river was not round and you did not end up where you started.

I guess I am not surprised that today’s park visitors need that warning.

As much as I am that maybe today’s political reporters do need to be reminded that a C is not an A.

7.9.2022 – geostrategic

geostrategic
trajectory of contests
inevitable

Adapted from this quote:

“Nor should we naturally assume it is a demonstration of the inevitable trajectory in other areas of geostrategic contest.”

From a speech to foreign policy think tank the Lowy Institute in Sydney, by the New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern.

“In the wake of the tensions we see rising, including in our Indo-Pacific region, diplomacy must become the strongest tool and de-escalation the loudest call. That won’t succeed, however, if those parties we endeavour to seek to engage with are increasingly isolated and the region we inhabit becomes increasingly divided and polarised,” Ardern said.

On the one hand I agree with everything I think Ms. Ardern just said.

On the other, I am reminded of the speech of Mr. Wilson in the The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain.

Mr. Wilson addressed the crowd with many multi syllabled words as well and delivered a speech and sat down victorious because, as Mr. Twain said, “There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus and upset the convictions and debauch the emotions of an audience not practiced in the tricks and delusions of oratory.“

7.8.2022 – been responsible

been responsible
for lies, fraud – those complicit
utterly ashamed

Adapted from the line:

He has been responsible for lies, scandal and fraud on an industrial scale. And all those who have been complicit should be utterly ashamed.

And … we aren’t talking about anyone in the United States.

The sand ran out on Boris Johnson and Great Britain is looking for ‘Someone who can rebuild trust, heal the country, and set out a new, sensible and consistent economic approach to help families.’

As Patrick Henry said, “Caesar had his Brutus — Charles the First, His Cromwell — And George the Third, may profit by their example”

I leave it to the reader to imagine who I am thinking about.

But there has been a feller here in the United States, who has been responsible for lies, scandal and fraud on an industrial scale.

And all those who have been complicit should be utterly ashamed.

Utterly ashamed!

Utterly!

Completely and without qualification; absolutely.

Utterly ashamed.

7.7.2022 – the reality

the reality
honestly is that the world
is bloody messy

Adapted from this quote:

“The honest reality is that the world is bloody messy. And yet, amongst all the complexity, we still often see issues portrayed in a black and white way. We must not allow the risk of a self-fulfilling prophecy to become an inevitable outcome for our region.“

From a speech to foreign policy think tank the Lowy Institute in Sydney, by the New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern.

Ms. Ardern displays once again her ability to sum up things succulently and still make an understatement.