Ramblings of a Retired Mind

  “The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.” Arthur Schopenhauer

  The truth! Now there’s a joke. What is the truth? Today, truth seems more blurred than ever. “The honest-to-God truth!” we proclaim, perhaps with our fingers crossed behind our backs. The truth is what one says is the truth—or is it? For some people, repeating a lie often enough eventually turns it into truth in their own minds. They convince themselves that because they believe it, it must be true. Not me. The terrible truth is that it is becoming harder to know what is actually true. Wars have been fought over competing versions of the truth. Marriages have been made, and marriages have been destroyed, based on what one person says is true and another believes to be a lie. “To love, to honor, till death do us part.” Those are powerful words. Yet how easily can someone convince themselves that looking outside the marriage is not really a betrayal? Perhaps they redefine love and fidelity until, in their own mind, they have somehow remained true to their vows. A terrib...

  Ramblings of A Retired Mind The new motto seems to be: “It’s all about me now.” Is that really the direction we want for our great nation—and for ourselves as citizens? Rules are for everyone else, but not for me. We see it in the person who fishes without a license, hunts an endangered animal, or speeds down the highway because the rules apparently don't apply to them. We see it in the driver who takes up two parking spaces, the neighbor who blasts music without a thought for anyone around them, or the person who sets off fireworks during a record drought with no concern for the danger to others. Little things, perhaps. But little things add up. Something seems different now. The sense that we are all part of the same community—that our actions affect other people—seems to be slipping away. And then there is politics. The divide has become so vast that sometimes it feels as though we are no longer simply citizens who disagree with one another, but opposing camp...

​ “Mixing one’s wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.” Bertolt Brecht 

  “When will we realize that the fact that we can become accustomed to anything, however disgusting at first, makes it necessary to examine carefully everything we have become accustomed to.”   George Bernard Shaw

  “Little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!” Arthur Miller

  “The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.” W. E. B. Du Bois

  “The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries but between authoritarians and libertarians.” George Orwell

​ “Totalitarianism demands, in fact, the continuous alteration of the past, and in the long run probably demands a disbelief in the very existence of objective truth.” George Orwell