Head-dibs

  “Everything we do has a toll attached to it. Waiting around is a tax on traveling. Rumors and gossip are the taxes that come from acquiring a public persona. Disagreements and occasional frustration are taxes placed on even the happiest of relationships. Theft is a tax on abundance and having things that other people want. Stress and problems are tariffs that come attached to success. And on and on and on. There are many forms of taxes in life. You can argue with them, you can go to great—but ultimately futile—lengths to evade them, or you can simply pay them and enjoy the fruits of what you get to keep.” (Ryan Holiday)

  The Technological advances of virtual reality is astounding. I remember standing at a console at the 1982 World’s Fair in Louisville, Kentucky fascinated by this TV screen that you could touch and manipulate what was on the screen. In the days of Pong and Space Invaders, this was the future. By the way, I am writing this on my phone using the on-screen keyboard and talk-to-text. The same device I use to make calls, read books, play video games—just like you. The future is here. But the future is not new. 400 years before Jesus, a virtual society was built using dialogue. Each and every piece and person clearly seen in the mind of those having the conversation. That conversation was written in the form of “The Republic.”   Using only words, Socrates and his friends developed a state, built its defenses, then identified and educated its warriors. They decided the focus of education, its content, style and tested the results. Next, they determined who should be in charge of the state, t

Brother Sun, and Sister Moon sister star shine day and night see them shine, beautiful radiant splendor of light Brother Sun, and sister moon heaven and earth proclaim God's glory all praise be Yours, most High God. Brother wind, and brother air fair in storm, all weather's wounds colored flowers and healing herbs heavenly grace flows through you Brother sun, and sister moon heaven and earth, proclaim God's glory all praise be Yours Most High God. So rejoice, for the heavens and earth are filled with God's glory. (Lyrics by John Michael Talbot)

Early in Book 2 of Plato’s “Republic,” the discussion turns into the story of a man named Gyges who finds a ring that makes him invisible. Using the powers of the ring, he reports to the court of his king, seduces the queen “and with her help conspired against the king and slew him, and took the kingdom.” What would happen if there were two rings, one worn by an unjust man and the other by a just man? The story attempts to make the case that a just man will act unjustly if given the opportunity to think he is doing right, if only by himself. But what if he doesn’t? What if there was no ring, and what if there was a perfectly unjust man and a perfectly just man and both had everything they needed in life? The unjust man must cover his steps in order to be distinguished and succeed. In the eyes of others, he appears to be just. But what about the just man, who appears to be unjust?    “They will tell you that the just man who is thought unjust will be scourged, racked, bound-will have hi

 “The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.” ― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

 Welcome, April! New month, new layout. Now that I’ve made a weekly calendar, I have to decide how to use it! Not my style, but I’ll try it anyway.

The last five months, I’ve utilized this first volume reading guide published in 1951, navigating through all or portions of selected readings from: Plato’s “Apology,” Crito,” and “The Republic”; Sophocle’s “Oedipus The King” and “Antigone”; Aristotle’s “Nichomachean Ethics” and “Politics”; Plutarch’s Lives “Lycurgus,” “Numa Pompilius,” “Alexander,” and “Julius Caesar”; The Book of Job; Augustine’s “Confessions”; Montaigne’s “Essays”; Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”; Locke’s “Concerning Civil Government”; Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels,” Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” America’s Founding Documents, namely, “The Declaration of Independence,” “The Constitution,” and “The Federalist Papers”; concluding with “The Communist Manifesto” by Marx and Engles. All this after my 10 chapters per day Bible reading. I did not read every single day, but I managed to complete the curriculum of Volume 1.   Of all I’ve touched so far, Sophocles and Job capture the human situation best, and spoke to

It was actually yesterday, but you know how these calendars work.  Things to do today: 1) ponder the error of your ways; 2) take a moment to dance a little; 3) have a snack; 4) enjoy a makeover (if applicable); 5) be specific when describing the ruckus. 6) Don’t forget about me.

  “We often make judgments about other people. We call one person kind, the other stupid, the third evil, the fourth clever. But we should not do so. A man changes constantly; he flows like a river, and every new day he differs from what he was before. He was stupid and became clever; he was evil and became kind at heart; and so on. You cannot judge another person. The moment you blame him, he becomes someone different.”     (Tolstoy, after The Talmud) Lev Tolstoy  (1828-1910) in an 1884 portrait by Nikolay Ge (1831-1894)

“Real wisdom is not the knowledge of everything, but the knowledge of which things in life are necessary, which are less necessary, and which are completely unnecessary to know. Among the most necessary knowledge is the knowledge of how to live well, that is, how to produce the least possible evil and the greatest goodness in one’s life. At present, people study useless sciences, but forget to study this, the most important knowledge.”

March 6, 1831 was the day Edgar Allan Poe was expelled from West Point. The story is that before he left, he managed to secure a financial sum from fellow cadets to underwrite a new publication of poetry that, once published, was not well received. The light, humorous fellow known among his friends was not found in the pages, so they collectively threw the book into the river. “The Raven” was published in 1845 and, despite its popularity, did not help him financially. The short work is better read aloud.   After this last reading of “The Raven,” I remembered a Prog album released in 2013 by Steven Wilson titled, “The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories).” Or TRTRTS, for short. The concept album seems to capture or suggest tones of Poe’s stories and poems while telling some its own ghost stories: of invisible people (everyday people that go unnoticed); of watching a loved one die and learning to move on; of the destruction of an outwardly “perfect person” with a private, secre

  A group of artists were challenged to depict greatest personal fear on the canvases of their own faces. One made his face like that of a spider, another into a collage of monsters, another as a an old lady, depicting her fear of aging. Why do you think people fear growing old? “In the way”; loss of resourcefulness or respect; letting go; the wish to live life over; guilt; becoming bitter, resentful over family matters; feeling unsupported, that life was a raw deal; self-pity; fear of finances, illness, loneliness, senility.  How many of these fears might be similar to the vanities Solomon has written about?  Is growing old without difficulty?  Does this mean that we cannot with grace and without knowing our worth in God’s eyes? How might this change our lives in the coming years?  I just finished reading Ecclesiastes. Chapter 12:1-8 presents a realistic picture of the aging process and couples it with some down-to-earth advice.

  Finished reading the adventurous prison escape that was Ch 7-11 of The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) Italian goldsmith and sculptor. This guy is worth further research!  

Edward  Gibbon published his multi volume work, “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” in 1776. This particular reading focused on Volume 1, Chapters 15-16, “Progress of the Christian Religion”, From 258-313 AD. While Gibbon cannot argue with the Divine source of the Christian faith in the context of historical Judaism, he is more interested in exploring “the secondary causes of the rapid growth of the Christian church” that impacted Rome and the world at large. The secondary causes are divided into five: 1) inherited zeal; 2) the future life; 3) miracles; 4) morals; 5) unity that gradually formed into an independent state in the heart of the Roman Empire.   Gibbon reports on the miraculous powers of the early church, but concludes by virtue of his status as historian that he has no opinion on the subject opinion. This non-opinion is underscored by his curious claim that miracles ceased when man embraced reason, that it “is not sufficiently prepared to sustain the visible action of