Friday, May 26, 2023
Credit.....................
Credit—the disposition of one man to trust another—is singularly varying.
-Walter Bagehot, Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market
believe......................
"You don't believe in reason," Sharpe let the conversation veer away from the painful subject of the Count of Mouromorto's loyalty.
"Reason is the mathematics of thinking, nothing more. You don't live by such dry disciplines. Mathematics cannot explain God, no more can reason, and I believe in God! Without Him we are no more than corruption. But I forget. You are not a believer."
Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe's Rifles
embrace..................
Ask anyone you admire: Their lucky breaks happened on a detour from their main goal. So embrace detours. Life is not a straight line for anyone.
Monday, May 22, 2023
Much has changed.....................
....................since he wrote these words:
The culture of repudiation is sometimes referred to (usually dismissively) as 'political correctness'—the assumption being that university gurus are involved in a kind of brain-washing exercise, to ensure that no political view will be transmitted or accepted on campus save those of a liberal-egalitarian kind. But, interesting though this assumption is, I doubt that it has any real bearing on the cultural phenomenon. The feminists, gay activists, new historicists, crypto-Marxists, Foucauldians and deconstructionists who thrive in humanities departments do not, as a rule, have much interest in the political view of their students.
-Roger Scruton, An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture (1998)
On expectations...............
In truth, unrealistic expectations tarnish our appreciation of life and weigh down the buoyancy of the present moment.
as much as...........................
You'll find that education's about the only thing lying around loose in this world, and that it's about the only thing a fellow can have as much as he's willing to haul away. Everything else is screwed down tight and the screw-driver lost.
-George H. Lorimer, Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son
Sunday, May 21, 2023
an ardent conformist................
Light comes from the East. The Chinese sage Confucius, who lived five centuries before Christ, left no writings of his own, and is known to us, as Christ is, from the words and deeds recorded by his apostles. Unlike Christ, however, Confucius was not a religious reformer, but an ardent conformist in all matters both temporal and spiritual, and his counsels and maxims, recorded in the Analects, are concerned with the orderly conduct of life in this world, rather than the hopes and fears for the next. Confucius lived through the collapse of feudal civilization in ancient China, and wandered the land in search of a prince who would listen to his counsels. He loved life, was fond of horses and hunting, and was both a practical and a respectable man, distinguished from his contemporaries largely by his propensity both to utter uncomfortable truths, and to live by them.
-Roger Scruton, An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture
once celebrated..........................
The pioneers of the modern tech industry were once celebrated as exemplars of capitalist competition, illustrating what Joseph Schumpeter called the "creative destruction" that breaks up monopolies and allows others to rise from below. But today's tech leaders increasingly resemble an exclusive ruling class, controlling a few exceptionally powerful companies, and like aristocracies everywhere they are often resistant to any dispersion of their power. As the conquer ever more of the precious digital real estate, they are building a more stratified economic and social order, with widening class divisions, not only in the United States, but around the world.
-Joel Kotkin, The Coming of NEO Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class
small and serendipitous thrills.............
Satisfaction comes not from chasing bigger and bigger things, but paying attention to smaller and smaller things. . . .
Once, my wife and I were at the home of close friends, eating and drinking out in their garden. It was dusk, and they asked us to gather around a plant with small, closed flowers. "Watch a flower," one of them instructed. We did so, for about ten minutes, in complete silence. All at once, the flowers popped open, which we learned that they did every evening. We gasped in amazement and joy. It was a moment of intense satisfaction.
But here's the interesting thing: Unlike most of the junk on my old bucket list, that satisfaction endured. That memory still brings me joy—more so than many of my life's earthly "accomplishments"—not because it was the culmination of a large goal, but because it was a small and serendipitous thrill. It was a tiny miracle that felt like a free gift, freely given.
-Arthur C. Brooks, From Strength to Strength
Aging like a fine wine...............
Age will only be respected if it fights for itself, maintains its own rights, avoids dependence, and asserts control over its own sphere as long as life lasts. For just as I like a young man to have something old about him, so I approve of an old man who has a touch of youth. If that is his aim, whatever the age of the body, in spirit he will never be old.
-Cicero, from his 44 B.C. essay, Cato the Elder On Old Age
your thing........................
Making art is not selfish: it's for the rest of us. If you don't do your thing, you are cheating us.
Taking a walk around the yard..........
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| early bloomers |
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| We love our peonies |
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| A few alliums |
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| Rhododendrens My favorite plant |
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| These azaleas have been around for a while |
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| My Sweetie has the touch |
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| Next week this will be magnificent |
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| some begonias just hanging around |
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