Doing one's duty

This story might be half-apocryphal, but apparently on May 19th, 1780, the sky went dark over Connecticut. We don’t know what blotted out the sun—probably some forest fires burning nearby—but the deeply Christian Connecticuters figured it was a sign the End Times had come. At the State House in Hartford, several senators suggested that everybody should return home and prepare to meet their Maker. 

Amidst the commotion, Senator Abraham Davenport of Stamford stood up and said: "I am against adjournment. The day of judgment is either approaching, or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for an adjournment; if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that candles may be brought." 

Candles were brought, and the work continued.

            Adam Mastroianni, Experimental History blog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Age of Play

Childhood may be defined as the age of play;
    therefore some children are never young,
        and some adults are never old.

            Will Durant, Fallen Leaves: Last Words on Life, Love, War and God

 

 

 

 

 

S-U-C-C-E-S-S

Do you see the consequences of the way we have chosen to think about success? Because we so profoundly personalize success, we miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung. … We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail. And most of all, we become much too passive. We overlook just how large a role we all play — and by “we” I mean society — in determining who makes it and who doesn’t.

        Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success

 

 

 

 

It's not important

A great many worries can be diminished
    by realizing the unimportance
        of the matter which is causing the anxiety.

        Bertrand Russell, Conquest of Happiness

 

 

 

 

 

Fly on

Old age is like a plane flying through a storm.
Once you’re aboard, there’s nothing you can do.
You can’t stop the plane, you can’t stop the storm, you can’t stop time.
So one might as well accept it calmly, wisely.

        Golda Meir, 1972 interview with Oriana Fallaci

 

 

 

Who God has

There are many outside the church who seem to be inside,
there are many inside the church who seem to be outside...
There are some whom the church has whom God has not,
there are some whom God has whom the church has not.

                Attributed to St. Augustine

 

 

 

A Birthday Poem

Just past dawn, the sun stands
with its heavy red head
in a black stanchion of trees,
waiting for someone to come
with his bucket
for the foamy white light,
and then a long day in the pasture.
I too spend my days grazing,
feasting on every green moment
till darkness calls,
and with the others
I walk away into the night,
swinging the little tin bell
of my name.

        Ted Kooser