Edgy......................

 

I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center. Big, undreamed‑of things—the people on the edge see them first.

-Kurt Vonnegut, as quoted here

fixity vs flux...................

 

     We have thus made a problem for ourselves by confusing the intelligible with the fixed.  We think that making sense out of life is impossible unless the flow of events can somehow be fitted into a framework of rigid forms.  To be meaningful, life mist be understandable in terms of fixed ideas and laws, and these in turn must correspond to unchanging and eternal realities behind the shifting scene.  But if this is what "making sense out of life" means, we have set ourselves the impossible task of making fixity out of flux.

-Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity

Bothism.........................

 

more fun here

fun with the language................

 Printers indeed should be very careful how they omit a Figure or a Letter: For by such Means sometimes a terrible Alteration is made in the Sense. I have heard, that once, in a new Edition of the Common Prayer, the following Sentence, We shall all be changed in a Moment, in the Twinkling of an Eye; by the Omission of a single Letter, became, We shall all be hanged in a Moment, &c. to the no small Surprize of the first Congregation it was read to.

-Richard Saunders, as being channeled by Ben Franklin

Poor Richard knew a thing or two...............

 

The following bits of wisdom were culled from here:

There are three Things extreamly hard, Steel, a Diamond and to know one’s self.

He is a Governor that governs his Passions, and he a Servant that serves them.

A Cypher and Humility make the other Figures and Virtues of ten fold Value.

If it were not for the Belly, the Back might wear Gold.

Wouldst thou confound thine Enemy, be good thy self.

Pride is as loud a Beggar as Want, and a great deal more saucy.

Pay what you owe, and what you’re worth you’ll know.

Sorrow is good for nothing but Sin.

Many a Man thinks he is buying Pleasure, when he is really selling himself a Slave to it.

Tis hard (but glorious) to be poor and honest: An empty Sack can hardly stand upright; but if it does, ’tis a stout one!

He that can bear a Reproof, and mend by it, if he is not wise, is in a fair way of being so.

Sound, and sound Doctrine, may pass through a Ram’s Horn, and a Preacher, without straitening the one, or amending the other.

Clean your Finger, before you point at my Spots.

He that spills the Rum, loses that only; He that drinks it, often loses both that and himself.

Those that have much Business must have much Pardon.

Discontented Minds, and Fevers of the Body are not to be cured by changing Beds or Businesses.

Little Strokes, Fell great Oaks.

’Tis a Shame that your Family is an Honour to you! You ought to be an Honour to your Family.

Glass, China, and Reputation, are easily crack’d, and never well mended.

What signifies knowing the Names, if you know not the Natures of Things.

Tim was so learned, that he could name a Horse in nine Languages; So ignorant, that he bought a Cow to ride on.

The Golden Age never was the present Age.

You may be too cunning for One, but not for All.

Genius without Education is like Silver in the Mine.

Many would live by their Wits, but break for want of Stock.

Carl Jung was once asked.....................

"What do consider to be the more or less basic factors making for happiness in the human mind?"   His answer:

 1.   Good physical and mental health.

2.    Good personal and intimate relationships, such as those of marriage, the family, and friendships.

3.     The faculty for perceiving beauty in art and nature.

4.     Reasonable standards of living and satisfactory work.

5.     A philosophic or religious point of view capable of coping successfully with the vicissitudes of life.

-as culled from here

no fixed rules......................

Money is less about numbers and more about stories—stories we tell ourselves about what matters, what makes us happy, and how we measure success.

     Spending money is more art than science.  There's no universal formula, no fixed rules.  What brings one person joy may leave another feeling empty.  And so, just as with investing, understanding our emotions—our biases, hopes and fears—can guide us toward smarter choices.  Choices that reflect who we are, what we value, and how we want to live.

-Morgan Housel, from the Author's Note to The Art of Spending Money

sits......................

 

In between the numbers, charts, and data sits the messiness and absurdity of the human mind.

-Morgan Housel, The Art of Spending Money

the mantle................

 

Science, right from the beginning of the modern enterprise, was allotted the role that the Church had previously claimed for itself: the primary guide to truth, and the enlightener of humanity.  More than a method, it was a faith.  It remains one today, which is why arguments around scientific questions, from COVID to climate change, are often so vexed and divisive.  Each of us wants to claim the mantle of 'science' for our perspective because of the authority it bestows.  'Follow the Science' usually translates in practice as 'follow me'.

-Paul Kingsnorth, Against the Machine

choices.......................

 

There is a price to be paid for fabricating around us a society which is as artificial and mechanised as our own, and this is that we can exist in it only on the condition that we adapt ourselves to it.  This is our punishment.

-Philip Sherrard

Just back............................

 

..............from spending a week in South Carolina with friends of 55 years.  Highly recommended.