Meditations #34

 Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Ten

I mean, well duh, but at the same time it is one of the most profound things Marcus Aurelius ever said. Not to be too pedestrian, but are you going to talk the talk or walk the walk? All too often we, and intellectuals (or pseudo-intellectuals like me) talk endlessly about what a better world might be, but do little or nothing to make it a reality. Steve and I have this conversation at the Food Shelf all the time: that's another box of food loaded into another person's trunk, and that's the best thing I'll do this week. I'm not saying I'm a good person, because I'm obviously not, but the point is that we tried to do something tangible, even in a small way, to make someone's life a little better. There have been times at division meetings when we'll be talking about the efforts of Techdren to bring laptops to Zanzibar, and one of my more effete colleagues will sniff about White Savior Complex, to which my response is something like, "Look, paraphrasing Archer, you need to shut up and keep shutting up." Actually, my response is usually angry and profanity laden, but . . . Anyway, the point is, what are you doing to make the world a better place? Do something, try and be a good person, that little action means more than all your philosophizing.

It's Never Too Early . . .

 . . . to start thinking about the winter in the #YankeeHellhole.

And five cords of wood later.

Winter Is Coming.

Papaw

 I was cleaning out my apartment before the big move and found this picture of my grandfather, aka Jum, aka Papaw. I miss him so much.

As I've said many times before, he was the only Scudder, including me, who was/is worth a damn.

Meditations #33

 Without an understanding of the nature of the universe, a man cannot know where he is; without an understanding of its purpose, he cannot know what he is, nor what the universe itself is. Let either of these discoveries be hid from him, and he will not be able so much as to give a reason for his own existence. So what are we to think of anyone who cares to seek or shun the applause of the shouting multitudes, when they know neither where they are nor what they are?

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Eight

For several reasons, none of them particularly surprising, this passage from the Meditations jumped out at me this morning. At several places in the Meditations Marcus Aurelius discusses the city and the individual, or, to think of it another way, the macro and the micro, or maybe the external and the internal. Last night we were watching the first public broadcast of the January 6th Commission. As the committee members laid out the treasonous actions of Trump and his followers it provided more proof (or, as Sandy Zale would opine, as if we needed more proof) of a nation that has clearly lost both an understanding of "the nature of the universe" and also of "its purpose." As I said to Janet last night, for probably the thousandth time, it's not simply the actions of one deranged, sociopathic leader, but the one hundred million Americans who are completely cool with his actions - apparently democracy is just one of those quaint ideas from the past, or simply something that happens to other people. Now, on the smaller, more personal, more internal level, these words resonated with me as well. Yesterday I finally, officially, physically, moved into Janet's cabin in Calais. Obviously, to get to this moment I've needed to devote time to trying to understand both the nature of the universe and its purpose, but it's also clearly just the beginning of the process. Every time we cross a boundary it is the perfect time for that manner of self-reflection, and this is no exception.

The Cabin in the Woods

 Yes, life continues its dizzying and illogical run. In November I was hard on the heels of being dumped, twice, in the space of a couple months (with the big dump increasingly a thing of distant and indistinct memory) and grinding through a difficult semester - and facing the end of the year and the thoughts that maybe I was just meant to be alone. And then I met a girl (and how often, good and bad, has that been the precursor to major change). And now six months later I'm moved into her cabin in the woods. Obviously, much more on this later. In the meantime, a few pictures.