for the eye sees not
itself, but by reflection,
by some other things
Adapted from Julius Caesar ACT I – SCENE II where Brutus says:
No, Cassius, for the eye sees not itself
But by reflection, by some other thing.
I snapped this image of the pond at the Audubon Newhall Preserve on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina and was struck by the reflection.
The eye sees not by itself.
But by reflection.
But by some other things.
will and wish to win
isn’t chance for either unless
a will to prepare
The will to win.
We hear a lot about that.
The will and the wish to win, but there isn’t a chance for either one of them to be gratified or to have any value unless there has been a will to prepare to win: the will to prepare for service, to do the things that build and develop our capacity, physical, mental, and moral.
I don’t care what job you are undertaking, what field of human endeavor, all life is a service of some kind or other; all that we do in organized society today to make it better and finer is good service and all that we do the other way is poor service and we never can render this service and the will to win won’t be much to a twelve second man in a run against a ten.
He must have the will to prepare to win.
Fielding H. Yost as quoted in Intimate Talks with Great Coaches Edited by E. Dana Caulkins (Public Schools Athletic League (New York, N.Y.) New York : Wingate Memorial Fund, Inc., 1930).
Prepare to win.
Put in the time required to win.
The will to put in the time required to win.
Fielding H. Yost coached football at the University of Michigan and was Athletic Director at the University of Michigan from 1900 to 1940.
It was in 1930 that Coach Hurry Up Yost said “The will and the wish to win, but there isn’t a chance for either one of them to be gratified or to have any value unless there has been a will to prepare to win.”
It was on Nov. 30, 2024 that current Michigan football coach, Sherrone Moore said:
It’s not really about scheme.
It’s not really about techniques.
It’s really about the will and the will to want to put your man in the backfield or put him across the line of scrimmage, and that’s what we preached all week, and that’s what those guys did.
It’s really about the will …
and that’s what those guys did.
Michigan 13 – OSU 10.
And don’t you forget it.
happiness – sadness
feel tragic optimism
even in the same hour
Tragic optimism means acknowledging, accepting and even expecting that life will contain hardship and hurt, then doing everything we can to move forward with a positive attitude anyway.
It recognizes that one cannot be happy by trying to be happy all the time, or worse yet, assuming we ought to be.
Rather, tragic optimism holds space for the full range of human experience and emotion, giving us permission to feel happiness and sadness, hope and fear, loss and possibility — sometimes in the same day, and even in the same hour.
From the New York Times Opinion piece, How to Keep Going Amid the Chaos by Brad Stulberg.
According to his NYT Times bio, Mr. Stulberg is the author of “Master of Change: How to Excel When Everything Is Changing, Including You; Embracing Life’s Instability with Rugged Flexibility―a Practical Model for Resilience.” He writes about mental health and excellence.
Mr. Stulberg closes with:
At a moment when it can seem that all is lost, we’d be wise to embrace tragic optimism, wise hope and wise action.
In this we recognize we can exert our agency, even if limitedly, even if only in increments, however we can.
These attitudes and skills, and our willingness to adopt and practice them, are essential to not only our individual resilience but that of our communities.
We need both now.
Is Mr. Stulberg writing about America right now?
Is Mr. Stulberg writing about University of Michigan football?
Is Mr. Stulberg writing about … both?
seeking to advance
a revolutionary
transvaluation
In his opinion essay, “The Moral Challenge of Trumpism,” David Brooks quotes a Mr. Damon Linker who writes:
“Trumpism is seeking to advance a revolutionary transvaluation of values by inverting the morality that undergirds both traditional conservatism and liberal institutionalism. In this inversion, norms and rules that counsel and enforce propriety, restraint and deference to institutional authority become vices, while flouting them become virtues.”
For me, this simple but wonderful use of words hits at what I feel about the incoming administration.
Mr. Brooks expands on the idea of “norms and rules that counsel and enforce propriety, restraint and deference to institutional authority become vices, while flouting them become virtues.” writing:
What does heroism look like according the MAGA morality? It looks like the sort of people whom Trump has picked to be in his cabinet. The virtuous man in this morality is self-assertive, combative, transgressive and vengeful. He’s not afraid to break the rules and come to his own conclusions. He has contempt for institutions and is happy to be a battering force to bring them down. He is unbothered by elite scorn but, in fact, revels in it and goes out of his way to generate it.
In this mind-set, if the establishment regards you as a sleazeball, you must be doing something right. If the legal system indicts you, you must be a virtuous man.
In this morality, the fact that a presidential nominee is accused of sexual assault is a feature, not a bug. It’s a sign that this nominee is a manly man. Manly men go after what they want. They assert themselves and smash propriety — including grabbing women “by the pussy” if they feel like it.
In this worldview, a nominee enshrouded in scandal is more trustworthy than a person who has lived an honest life. The scandal-shrouded nominee is cast out from polite society. He’s not going to run to a New York publisher and write a tell-all memoir bashing the administration in which he served. Such a person is not going to care if he is scorned by the civil servants in the agency he has been hired to dismantle.
Now comes my point.
I know so many folks who say something along the line of “… I voted for Trump, but I don’t go along with all these things he says or does.”
See there is this train.
I don’t like the train.
I don’t like where the train is going.
I don’t like the accommodations on the train.
I don’t like the schedule the train runs on.
I don’t even like the color of the train or the arrangement of the seating or how I get my tickets on the train.
BUT they serve a really good lunch on the train on Tuesdays so I buy and ticket to ride the train.
I might get my lunch, but I get everything else, including ending up where that train is headed when I bought my ticket and provided the means for the train to operate.
As Mr. Brooks writes, “… character is destiny.”
constitute and frame
just and equal Laws, offices
for general good
The Mayflower Compact
Agreement between the Settlers at New Plymouth, 1620
In the name of God, Amen.
We whose names are underwritten, the loyal Subjects of our dread sovereign Lord King James, by the grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian Faith, and honor of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the Northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one another, covenant, and combine ourselves together into a civil body politick, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11. of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini 1620.
On this Thanksgiving Day, 2024, I feel like we can give thanks for the 247 years of this country and the 403 years since the signing of the Mayflower Compact.
Thanks for years past and what for the years to come?
On the 300th anniversary of the signing of the Mayflower, then Governor of Massachusetts, Calvin Coolidge said:
But the really wonderful thing was that they had the power and strength of character to abide by it and live by it from that day to this. Some governments are better than others. But any form of government is better than anarchy, and any attempt to tear down government is an attempt to wreck civilization.
Bet you a quarter ‘Silent Cal’ never ever thought his words … any attempt to tear down government is an attempt to wreck civilization. … would end up being a warning for his country.
No Haiku For You 