quae volumus et
credimus libenter – we …
believe what we want

Quae volumus, et credimus libenter.

The things we want we are also quick to believe.

The full form of the saying in Caesar is Quae volumus et credimus libenter, et quae sentimus ipsi, reliquos sentire speramus, “The things we want, we are also quick to believe, and what we ourselves perceive, we hope that others feel too.”

So wrote Julius Ceasar in his book, Commentaries on the Civil War.

According to Wikipedia, Commentarii de Bello Civili (Commentaries on the Civil War), or Bellum Civile, is an account written by Julius Caesar of his war against Gnaeus Pompeius and the Roman Senate. It consists of three books covering the events of 49–48 BC, from shortly before Caesar’s invasion of Italy to Pompey’s defeat at the Battle of Pharsalus and flight to Egypt.

50 years or so before Christ plus the 2024 years since.

Almost 2100 years ago.

The things we want we are also quick to believe.

Either Julius Caesar would have fit right in today.

Or our current system of elections would have fit right in, 2100 years ago.

Here is the full except:

Proxima nocte centuriones Marsi duo ex castris Curionis cum manipularibus suis xxil ad AttiumVarum perfugiunt. Hi, sive vere quam habuerantopinionem ad eum perferunt, sive etiam auribus Variserviunt (nam, quae volumus, et credimus libenteret, quae sentimus ipsi, reliquos sentire speramus), confirmant quidem certe totius exercitus animosalienos esse a Curione maximeque opus esse in con-spectum exercitus venire et colloquendi dare facultatem. Qua opinione adductus Varus postero diemane legiones ex castris educit. Facit idem Curio,atque una valle non magna interiecta suas uterquecopias instruit.

In English:

On the following night two Marsic centurions from Curio’s camp, with twenty-two of their men, desert to Attius Varus. Whether they convey to him the opinion that they really held, or whether they only flatter his ears for what we desire we gladly believe, and what we ourselves feel we hope that others feel too at any rate they assure him that the hearts of the whole army are estranged from Curio, and that it is highly necessary that he should come within sight of the army and afford an opportunity of conference. Varus, influenced by this judgment, leads his legions out of camp early the next day. Curio does the same, and each draws up his forces with only one small valley between them.

As you can see, in the Loeb Classic Edition of 1917, it comes out as:

for what we desire we gladly believe, and what we ourselves feel we hope that others feel too …

quae volumus, et credimus libenteret, quae sentimus ipsi, reliquos sentire speramus …

For what we desire we gladly believe.

I don’t want to point to just one candidate in this current election cycle but those words, for what we desire we gladly believe, helps me understand his his following.

boring more than mad …
show me a sane person and
I’ll cure him for you

In his book, Jung: Man and Myth (Macmillan Pub Co, 1981), Vincent Brome writes:

“It was the explosive person who said one day to his wife, ‘If I get another perfectly normal adult malingering as a sick patient I’ll have him certified!’ And to George Beckwith, his American friend, ‘I’m sometimes driven to the conclusion that boring people need treatment more urgently than mad people.’ Witty on some occasions, he commented to one of his assistants, ‘Show me a sane person and I’ll cure him for you.’”

I am reminded of something Mr. Churchill said along the lines of “There are two types of people in this world. Those who are billed to death. And those who are bored to death.

I was self-appointed
surveyor of forest paths
keeping them open

For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snow storms and rain storms, and did my duty faithfully; surveyor, if not of highways, then of forest paths and all across-lot routes, keeping them open, and ravines bridged and passable at all seasons, where the public heel had testified to their utility.

In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line. You will pardon some obscurities, for there are more secrets in my trade than in most men’s, and yet not voluntarily kept, but inseparable from its very nature. I would gladly tell all that I know about it, and never paint “No Admittance” on my gate.

For a long time I was reporter to a journal, of no very wide circulation, whose editor has never yet seen fit to print the bulk of my contributions, and, as is too common with writers, I got only my labor for my pains. However, in this case my pains were their own reward.

For eighteen hundred years, though perchance I have no right to say it, the New Testament has been written; yet where is the legislator who has wisdom and practical talent enough to avail himself of the light which it sheds on the science of legislation.

All passages from Walden by Henry David Thoreau (Boston, Ticknor and Fields, 1854).

Wikipedia quotes EB White on Mr. Thoreau, that to write Walden, “Henry went forth to battle when he took to the woods, and Walden is the report of a man torn by two powerful and opposing drives— the desire to enjoy the world and the urge to set the world straight.”

Mr. Thoreau was in his mid 30’s when he went forth to battle.

I am in my mid 60’s and my urge to set the world straight is waning.

My desire to enjoy the world is growing.

That last line I quote from Walden happens to be the very last line of the book.

I can tweak it to read, “For over two thousand years, though perchance I have no right to say it, the New Testament has been written; yet where is the legislator who has wisdom and practical talent enough to avail himself of the light which it sheds on the science of legislation.“

It was Jim Harrison who once wrote along the lines that the United States had passed some 1.5 million laws … trying to enforce the 10 commandments.

It was Mr. Churchill who said in a speech in 1947, “Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

If Mr. Churchill is correct, BOY HOWDY, but do I feel sorry for all those other countries.

Is it any wonder that I embrace my role as a self-appointed inspector of snow storms and rain storms and reporter for my own journal of small circulation.

However, in this case my pains are their own reward.

PS: Thank you to my wife and co-self-appointed-inspector for the photos of our adventure on Widgeon Point, South Carolina.

catch a falling star
hear mermaids singing – tell me …
where all past years are

Adapted from “Song” by John Donne, first published in 1633, as printed in The Oxford book of English verse, 1250-1918, New York, Oxford University Press, 1939.

The first stanza reads:

Go and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me where all past years are,
Or who cleft the devil’s foot,
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
Or to keep off envy’s stinging,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.

With seven children in our family, my wife and I watched a lot of Nickelodeon and I thought a lot of those shows had underlying themes that were for those parents who like us, ended up watching those goofy shows.

The cartoon ‘Hey Arnold‘ about a kid with a football shaped head and his adventures growing up comes to mind.

The Grandma in that show would have a line here and there that just stopped you dead.

From “You’d knock down the statue of Liberty if it got a gray hair!” to “Against the law of the king, perhaps. Against the law of common decency? I think not!” you never knew what she would say.

In one episode Arnold was trying to get folks interested in saving an old building or something, I cannot remember what, and in the middle of the night, Grandma wakes him and drags him yelling, “Come on, let’s go grasp some straws!” and they go out to battle for justice and truth.

That is me today.

So so so much.

Michelle Obama’s call to DO … SOMETHING resonated in me to my toes.

… but what?

Mr. Donne writing almost 400 years ago put it this way.

Go and catch a falling star.

Tell me where all past years are.

Teach me to hear mermaids singing.

[Teach me] to keep off envy’s stinging.

Find what wind serves to advance an honest mind.

Come on, let’s go grasp some straws!

accidentally
damaged and the response will
be accordingly

I was refreshingly intrigued to read the story, “‘I couldn’t believe it was my son who did it’: boy, 4, smashes bronze age jar in Israel museum” by Ashifa Kassam in the Guardian.

Ms. Kassam writes of an incident at the Hecht Museum in Israel where a 4 year boy knocked over and smashed a 3,500 year old vase that was ‘Older than King David.’

Ms. Hassem wrote that the parents, “They were not expecting what came next, however. “Instead of imposing fines or punishment, they invited us to visit again,” said Alex [The Dad].

This time the visit would include an organised tour, in an attempt to “sweeten” the family’s previous experience at the museum, the museum’s director, Inbal Rivlin, said in a statement.

Mr. Rivlin is quoted as saying, “There are instances where display items are intentionally damaged, and such cases are treated with great severity, including involving the police. In this case, however, this was not the situation. The jar was accidentally damaged by a young child visiting the museum, and the response will be accordingly.”

Someone in 2024, was allowed to have an accident.

No lawyers.

No police.

No courts.

The people who knew the situation said it was an accident and that accidents happen.

How refreshing!

I am happy to know accidents can still happen.

When I was 12, I was the Smithsonian in Washington, DC and in their display on Pirates, there were some gold doubloons mounted on the wall.

I eyeballed them, then I reached out and touched one.

BRAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM the alarms went off.

A guard slid an accordion style metal grate across the entrance to the display hall.

I suppose I should have been scared, but by age 12 I had mastered the air of concerned innocence in times of stress and when the guard ran over to check the display, he went right past me without a glance.

Once the guard was able to verify nothing was missing the alarm was turned off and the grate was slid back and I started to breath again.

For crying out loud, why did they have them glued to the wall if we weren’t supposed to touch them.

I joined up with my family and we walked on to other rooms, passing by a display of what was identified as Theodore Roosevelt’s desk.

This desk was also known as the Resolute Desk but President Nixon, aware of its history with JFK, chose not to use it in the White House and it was put the Smithsonian.

You cannot image how happy I was to read that a few months later after my Pirate Coin incident, at a Museum Black Tie Gala, the Director of the Smithsonian was showing the Roosevelt desk to some dignitaries when one of them asked if the lid could be raised and the Director said he didn’t know, so he reached over the velvet ropes and grabbed the top of the desk and BRAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM ….

But I digress.

What happened to accidents?

Don’t accidents happen anymore?

Maybe once in a while and luckily one happened in the Hecht Museum in Israel.

Never heard of it, but I would like to go there.