7.4.2024 – animating cause!

animating cause!
brave spirits are not subdued
with difficulties

One June 26, 1776, John Adams wrote to his wife, Abagail, saying: But these Reverses of Fortune dont discourage me. It was natural to expect them, and We ought to be prepared in our Minds for greater Changes, and more melancholly Scenes still. It is an animating Cause, and brave Spirits are not subdued with Difficulties.

Two weeks later, the Declaration of Independence was signed by Mr. Adams and the members of the Continental Congress.

The same fellers who had just recently been reminded by a message from King George III that while he, the King, was open and willing to receive back those wayward subjects of the North American Colonies, those fellers in Philadelphia who were causing all the problems, would be hung.

They voted for and signed the Declaration anyway.

To read it again …

… these Reverses of Fortune dont discourage me.

It was natural to expect them, and

We ought to be prepared in our Minds for greater Changes,

and more melancholly Scenes still.

It is an animating Cause, and brave Spirits are not subdued with Difficulties.

I will read this out loud today, the 4th of July.

I will remind myself not to be discouraged by the reverses in fortunes and I will prepare my mind for greater changes and more melancholly scenes still.

And I will remember that, after all, It is an animating Cause, and brave Spirits are not subdued with Difficulties.

I guess it is the least I can do for those Founding Fathers.

7.3.2024 – as well equipped for

as well equipped for
life right now if had never
gone to school at all

Of course I had always known men of no schooling who were hugely successful in the mere making of money.

But it took a longer time for me to find out that a man could say “would have went” and still be welcome at more tables,

… have a surer and a more aristocratic taste in matters of painting and music,

… and reveal in all ways a greater gift for living the good life than most of the Ph.D’s of my acquaintance.

Indeed, as I look about me among my neighbors,

… I find myself wondering whether I have anything at all to show for the score of years I spent in going to school,

… whether I would not be as well equipped for life right now if I had never gone to school at all.

From the essay, I Might Just as Well Have Played Hooky as published in Long Long Ago by Alexander Woollcott, (New York, The Viking Press, 1943). Originally published in the American Legion Magazine, January, 1931.

A greater gift for living the good life?

Can we flip that to a question and ask, “Is there a greater a gift than living the good life?”

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm …

I am reminded of one of my favorite Carl Sandburg poems, titled Happiness:

I asked the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though I was trying to fool with them
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with their women and children and a keg of beer and an accordion.

Am I thinking too much.

Am I over thinking this whole mess, the politics, the climate, the weather, everybody having a gun and NCAA Conference realignment?

As baseball great Ted Williams once said, “If you don’t think so good … don’t think so much.“

I’ll shut up now and pass me that church key.

7.2.2024 – had the ultimate

had the ultimate
effect of saving the Crown
… and much else besides

These engrained habits of toleration and respect for law sank deep into the English mind during the hundred years that followed the Revolution, and had their effect when the stresses of a new era began—with the democratic movement, the French Revolution and the social problems of the great industrial change.

The habit of respecting constitutional rights acted as some check on the violence of the anti-Jacobin reaction, and the same habit of mind carried the Radical and working-class movements into legal and parliamentary channels.

The victims of the Industrial Revolution at the beginning of the nineteenth century sought a remedy for their ills by demanding the franchise and Parliamentary Reform instead of general overturn; this happy choice was due in part to our national character but largely also to our national institutions, in which the oppressed saw a way of escape.

The English Revolution had the ultimate effect of saving the Crown and much else besides.

The closing conclusion from the book, The English Revolution, 1688-1689 by G. M. Trevelyan, (New York, Oxford University Press, 1938).

The very first sentence says, “Why do historians regard the Revolution of 1688 as important? And did it deserve the title of “glorious” which was long its distinctive epithet? “The Sensible Revolution” would perhaps have been a more appropriate title and certainly would have distinguished it more clearly as among other revolutions.“

Sensible Revolutution?

Great Britain votes on Thursday.

Not sure about sensible as why in the world would they select the 4th of July for a game changing election?

That date has worked so well for them in the past?

7.1.2024 – the greater the urge …

the greater the urge …
the need, the will, the hunger
to be somewhere else

What are roots and how long have we had them?

If our species has existed for a couple of million years, what is its history?

Our remote ancestors followed the game, moved with the food supply, and fled from evil weather, from ice and the changing seasons.

Then after millennia beyond thinking they domesticated some animals so that they lived with their food supply.

Then of necessity they followed the grass that fed their flocks in endless wanderings.

Only when agriculture came into practice—and that’s not very long ago in terms of the whole history—did a place achieve meaning and value and permanence.

But land is a tangible, and tangibles have a way of getting into few hands.

Thus it was that one man wanted ownership of land and at the same time wanted servitude because someone had to work it.

Roots were in ownership of land, in tangible and immovable possessions.

In this view we are a restless species with a very short history of roots, and those not widely distributed.

Perhaps we have overrated roots as a psychic need.

Maybe the greater the urge, the deeper and more ancient is the need, the will, the hunger to be somewhere else.

From Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck (Bantam, New York, 1962).

But land is a tangible, and tangibles have a way of getting into few hands.

Tangibles have a way of getting into few hands.

Mr. Steinbeck ends his book with this thought.

With all the polls and opinion posts, with newspapers more opinion than news so that we no longer know one from the other, I want to be very clear about one thing.

… it is a troubled place and a people caught in a jam. And I know that the solution when it arrives will not be easy or simple. I feel that the end is not in question. It’s the means—the dreadful uncertainty of the means.

Watching, looking and waiting as each little bit of news dribbles out.

I sense the urge of need and I know that my will, my hunger is to be … somewhere else.

6.30.2024 – steadily depressing

steadily depressing
low down mind messin’ living
with the covid blues …

Adapted from the great Jim Croce and his song, Steadily depressin’, low down mind-messin’
Workin’ at the carwash blues.

Well, I had just got out from the county prison
Doin’ ninety days for non-support
Tried to find me an executive position
But no matter how smooth I talked
They wouldn’t listen to the fact that I was genius
The man said, “We got all that we can use,”
Now I got them

Steadily depressin’, low down mind-messin’
Workin’ at the carwash blues

Well, I should be sittin’ in an air-conditioned
Office with a swivel chair
Talkin’ some trash to the secretary, sayin’
“Hey now mama, come on over here,”
Instead, I’m stuck here rubbin’ these fenders with a rag
And walkin’ home in soggy old shoes
With them

Steadily depressin’, low down mind-messin’
Workin’ at the carwash blues

This batch o’ the COVID has been nutz and no fun.

We have held it off with all the vaccines but it finally got us.

Came down with over a week ago.

Since then there have been some bad days and there have been some worse days.

There have not been any good days.

I did have some hours where I felt some pep, some get up and get go in the past 10 days, but it didn’t last.

Just sick and tired of been sick and tired.

Or as the man sang:

Steadily depressin’,

low down mind-messin’

Living with the COVID blues …