8.15.2020 – truth will set you free

truth will set you free
but first it, the truth, will make
you miserable

The World Wide Web attributes the quote, “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable,” to President James Garfield.

There is no citation to when and where President Garfield said this.

From what little I know of President Garfield, he most likely would have used shall in place of will had he really said this.

But there it is.

The ironic part for President Garfield is the application of this quote to his life.

He was shot in the back.

He lingered for months and finally died.

He died not from the gunshot but from the infection of the wound.

His assassin put forward at his trial that he didn’t kill President Garfield but that his own doctors did.

That was the truth and from what I have read President Garfield’s last weeks were miserable.

Regardless the point fits for today.

C19, Congress, the President, the election … the truth about it just makes me miserable.

Another quote of President Garfield, also without citation is:

“There are men and women who make the world better just by being the kind of people they are. They have the gift of kindness or courage or loyalty or integrity. It really matters very little whether they are behind the wheel of a truck or running a business or bringing up a family. The teach the truth by living it.”

I am struck by the line, “They have the gift of kindness or courage or loyalty or integrity.“

The gift of kindness.

Courage.

Loyalty.

Integrity.

Where are these men and women today?

I know they are out there.

I hope they are.

8.11.2020 – two kinds of knowledge

two kinds of knowledge
learn yourself, from another – but
all men are liars

Searching online for one thing I came upon another.

At Archive.org I discovered the online editions of Moore’s Rural New-Yorker, a country newspaper from Upstate New York, published in the late 1800’s.

I scanned through several editions and marveled at the use of language in a ‘country newspaper.’

On paragraph, listed under the slug, Bee Authority, caught my eye.

The writer, one M. Quinby, wrote:

There are two kinds of knowledge; what one learns for himself and what he takes on the authority of another.

The former is the best: how much the best becomes evident in some degree when we remember how the world has been enslaved, body and soul, mostly because some one claimed to be master, and no one had the ability or courage to stamp him the knave that he was.

Seeing how this thing has gone on, one is tempted to exclaim with David of old, “All men are liars.”

(Moore’s Rural New-Yorker January 22, 1870)

I am not sure how this got to where M. Quinby got to writing about Bee’s but I thought his feelings pretty much can be applied to today.

8.10.2020 – must not be hasty

must not be hasty
is easier to shout stop!
than it is to stop

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien writes in his book, The Two Towers; being the second part of The Lord of the rings, about when the two hobbits, Merry and Pippen, meet the oldest living creature in Middle Earth.

Fangorn or Treebeard discusses the current world situation in the land. especially the local ongoings of the nearby wizard named Saruman.

About this feller Saruman, Fangorn says, “his face as I remember it became like windows in a stone wall: windows with shutters inside.”

Fangorn gets so worked that he says it must stop.

He then says, “I will stop it.”

Then he says, “But I spoke hastily. We must not be hasty for it is easier to shout stop! than to do it.”

Abraham Lincoln would tell how his office was full of people telling him how to run the war and that he HAD to get rid of this General and that General and replace them with ANYBODY.

Mr. Lincoln is recorded to say something along of the lines of, “That is fine for you, but who do I put in their place.?ANYBODY may work for you, but I must have somebody.”

7.25.2020 – the path most taken

the path most taken
Titanic mentality
the end doesn’t change

It seems to me that in the old show, F Troop, a comedy about the good old days in the US Cavalry in the post Civil War West, there was this ongoing gag.

One of the Native American characters was always reading a book on the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

At some point some one would say, “Are you reading that again?”

And the character would answer, “I like how it ends.”

Last night I was watching TV and low and behold a lady from where I live in Gwinnett County was on CNN.

She was telling the CNN Anchor why she and other parents wanted the schools here in Gwinnett, the nations 4th or 5th largest school district, to be open in a few weeks.

She said she felt she was on the Titanic and there was no room in the lifeboats for her and other people who felt like her.

Her comments stuck with me.

It comes to me that the Titanic is a great analogy for where this great county is right now.

All the technology you can ask for.

All the power and services you can ask for.

All the anything you could ask for.

And neighbors, let me tell you, the story ends the same way.

THE

SHIP

SINKS.

We can argue on the course that got us here.

We can argue about who gets in the lifeboats.

We can argue about how to launch the lifeboats.

But in the end.

The story ends the same way.

The

Ship

Sinks.

I am getting more and more used to the idea that WE ARE ON THE TITANIC.

We are sinking.

Congress seems to think we have time to argue about it.

A lot of people seems to think we have time to argue about it.

This morning on TV I heard what I think was a one time Sec of Treasury in another (GW BUSH, OBAMA) administration who said it wasn’t the amount of financial aid in the next the stimulus package it was the LENGTH OF TIME the package would be available.

I cling to that.

One voice saying look at the length of time here folks.

I feel like these arguments and discussions on payments, masks, schools, quarantine, social distancing and what not are important, but in the grand scheme, no one will care.

Why?

Because.

The

Ship

Sinks.

The end of the story stays the same.

Only this time, I do not think any one is going to like how the story ends.

7.23.2020 – every nation gets

every nation gets
the government it deserves
argue, though it fits

“Toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle mérite” said Joseph de Maistre (1 April 1753 – 26 February 1821) as recorded in the Correspondance diplomatique, tome 2. Paris : Michel Lévy frères libraires éditeurs, 1860, p.196.

And if you wonder why every nation gets the government it deserves, Maistre argued that constitutions are not the product of human reason, but rather come from God, who slowly brings them to maturity.

Or, as Thomas Jefferson put it (and I have quoted this quote far to often but I am going to keep quoting it until it sinks in);

“Indeed I tremble for my country when reflect that God is just:

that his justice cannot sleep for ever:

that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events:

that it may become probable by supernatural interference!

The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest”

Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII: Manners