e-commentary

. . .

X     “They don’t tell you that this is what life is all about.  You work hard to get into the right preschool and then work hard to get into the right kindergarten and then work hard to get into the right grammar school and then work hard to get into the right middle school and then work hard to get into the right high school and then work hard to get into the right college and then work hard to get into the right law school and then work hard to get the right judicial clerkship and then work hard to get into the right law firm and then work hard to be a junior associate and then work hard to be a senior associate and then work hard to be a junior partner and then work hard to be a senior partner and then you work hard and then you die.”

Y     “Hardly works for me.  I’m getting out.”

. . .

_____________________________________

. . .

G     “I am happy.  What do you mean I’m not happy?”

B     “You’re not happy.”

G     “Who are you to tell me I’m not happy.”

B     “I’m me.  Reminding you that you’re not happy.”

G     “I am happy.”

B     “I once told you that I would never lie.  I never did; I never will.  I am comfortable sitting here playing Carl Rogers.  Isn’t that what you really want.”

G     “No, I want you to tell me I am happy.”

B     “You are happy.”

G     “You’re lying.”

B     “I’m lying.  Keep at least one eye on the road and look at it this way.  We don’t have to play games or maintain fronts.  Our circumstance provides me and even you with tremendous freedom and opportunity.  I am free to offer observations the last guy did not touch after what . . . some eight months. There was no percentage in him being bluntly honest with you.”

G     “Or apparently in being honest.”

B     “From what I see, there are only two of us in the car.  You only have to fool yourself and me.  I only have to fool myself and you.  That offers great promise and potential.  Late at night it may dawn on you that I simply do not care to fool me or to fool you.”

G     “Hypothetically, how could I not be happy?  Look at what I’ve done.  Look at what I’ve got.”

B     “Look at this car.  What happened to ‘Small Is Beautiful’.”

G     “This car is beautiful.”

B     “It isn’t efficient.  It isn’t small.  You abound in toys and bound from one diversion to another.  You stay busy and distracted so that you don’t have to pause and reflect.”

G     “No I don’t.  Modern life is busy.  Look at everything I have to do in a day.  You just don’t understand.  I am very successful at what I do.”

B     “You have done well and done good.  Why don’t you keep driving.”

G     “The car? Why? Where?”

B     “Anywhere, somewhere, nowhere.  Why not head West for one hour.  I’ll drive back and you can sleep.  You can saunter through the day tomorrow.  You know there was a time when it was a great joy to watch you breath while you slept.”

G     “To do what exactly?”

B     “Anything, something, nothing.  To stay up past your bedtime.”

G     “That is so irresponsible.  I have to get up early.”

B     “When you are finally honest with yourself, it may be too late.”

G     “Just who are you to tell me whether I am happy.”

B     “I’m me reminding you that you really want to be happy.  And you deserve to be happy.”

. . .

[With a nod to Montaigne’s Essais.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

She who dies with the most toys, . . .

She who dies with the most joys, . . .

Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero

Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.  Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.  Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labor which thou takest under the sun.                                               Ecclesiastes 9, 7-9

If I had it to do over again, I would go into the office more often.

. . .

And each forgets, as he strips and runs
With a brilliant, fitful pace,
It’s the steady, quiet, plodding ones
Who win in the lifelong race.
And each forgets that his youth has fled,
Forgets that his prime is past,
Till he stands one day, with a hope that’s dead,
In the glare of the truth at last.

He has failed, he has failed; he has missed his chance;
He has just done things by half.
Life’s been a jolly good joke on him,
And now is the time to laugh.
Ha, ha!  He is one of the Legion Lost;
He was never meant to win;
He’s a rolling stone, and it’s bred in the bone;
He’s a man who won’t fit in.

“The Men Who Don’t Fit In”  The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses © 1940 by Robert W. Service.  (Reprinted without permission which will be sought in due course.)

“It all comes down to self-respect and respect for human dignity.”

“You boys must understand and accept two rules.  Never ever under any circumstances or for any reason or provocation hurt a woman, physically or psychologically.  Always defend her if she is threatened even if the defense threatens your life.  Never depart from these rules.”

“Everything in life costs time, money and/or emotion.  Of all the things in this life you pursue, you will expend more time, more money and more emotion on women than you will on anything else.”

“If she is choosing between you and someone else, tell her what you think and how you feel about her.  She decides.  If you don’t make the cut, walk away without a word.”

“If you ever hurt which you will, remember that time is the great tincture.”

“If you say you are going to call, call.  If you do not intend to call, do not say you are going to call.  It’s simple”

“If you can keep your head, you will do fine.”

“Okay, this is not that simple.”

[With a nod to Montaigne’s Essais.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Dad defines the man; Mom defines the person.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

“If”  by Rudyard Kipling.  (Reprinted without permission which will be sought in due course.  One hopes there is understanding.)

“I have regretted it a hundred times.  All it would take is one human being deciding to change her mind about one small comment and to forgive a slight slight, if it was a slight.  It seemed wry and witty at the time.  I thought she would enjoy it.”

“[Formal first name], real men don’t regret.”

“It seemed felicitous.  . . .  By the way, [formal first name], I don’t buy it, I just don’t buy it.  Real men think.  And feel.  If you fool yourself into thinking that you don’t have any regrets, you are only fooling yourself and not thinking.”

“Forget it.  Move on.”

“Funny thing about this life.  As these things go, she likely will get married in the next few years and then deal with many more slights, resentments and transgressions through the years even if she marries that ephemeral entity known as her soul mate.”

“Give it up.  No regrets.”

“Don’t buy it.  Unless I cease thinking, there will be more than a few times when I will wonder what could have been.”

[With a nod to Montaigne’s essais.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“Yesterday”  P. McCartney/J. Lennon (?)

“In My Life”  J. Lennon /P. McCartney (?)

“Let It Be”  P. McCartney/J. Lennon (?)