The Greatest Slavery

Charles Peguy, The Portal of the Mystery of Hope--

He who loves places himself, by loving,
By that very act, from then on, into dependence,
He who loves becomes the slave of the one who is loved.
It's normal, it's the common lot.
It's inevitable.
He who loves falls into slavery, consigns himself, puts himself under the yoke of slavery.
He becomes dependent on the one he loves.
And yet it's this very situation, my child, that God made for himself in loving us.
God has designed to hope in us, because he wanted to hope for us, wait for us.

hard to please

Women are less happy now than they were 30 years ago, according to a recent study by Penn/NBER researchers. This is a silly study to begin with, as happiness is impossible to measure objectively. But suppose their methods and findings are legit... I wouldn't be too surprised if their findings were true. With the empowerment of women comes increased burden. We have much more economic, social, and political responsibility. In other words, life is more complicated for us females, and isn't happiness the simplest of all states?

EDIT: Of course, female unhappiness is much more complicated than what I explained above. Factor in the effects of media and consumerism, for example, and our misery is compounded. And what about secularism?

Abshir Boyah: Confessions of a Somalian Pirate

Mr. Boyah, who lives in a simple little house, explains: “Don’t be surprised when I tell you all the money has disappeared. When someone who never had money suddenly gets money, it just goes.”

He claims that his estimated take of several hundred thousand dollars disappeared down a vortex of parties, weddings, jewelry, cars and qat, the stimulating leaf that Somalis chew like bubble gum.

Also, because of the extended network of relatives and clansmen, “it’s not like three people split a million bucks,” he said. “It’s more like 300.”

Oh, Mr. Boyah added, he also gives 15 percent to charity, especially to the elderly and infirm.
“I’d love to give them more,” he said.

Over all, he seemed like a man on a genuine quest for redemption — or a very good liar.

“We know what we’re doing is wrong,” he said gravely. “I’m asking forgiveness from God, the whole world, anybody.”

-NY Times

So maybe not all pirates are such terrible people after all...? Haha.

Wonderlust

She’s always more confused than she was before
where to put her left foot down.
Lost in action doesn’t get her far.
This world will not wait long for stragglers,
no such thing as a time-stopper.
That’s too bad, just too bad for wanderers.

Lost sight of the road,
hidden beneath her own junk.
Vagrancy isn’t as romantic as it sounds.
Let’s hope it’s north.
Let’s hope it ends.
Let’s hope she gets there before it ends.

words to brighten up my cube

This life, therefore, is not righteousness,
but growth in righteousness,
not health but healing,
not being but becoming,
not rest but exercise.
We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it;
the process is not yet finished but it is going on.
This is not the end, but it is the road.

-Martin Luther
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Usually the thought of travel or exertion makes me tired, but this gives quite the opposite effect. Thanks, Joyce, for giving this quote to me.

pandora

Pandora is my happiness at work. Just started this account--the music genome they constructed is pretty cool.

One thing work has done is allay my music-deprivation. So big shout out to work.

John W. Gardner

So, you may (not) have been wondering who this John W. Gardner fellow is that I've quoted on my blog. I had no idea either -- I just liked the quote. Turns out he was this crazy important civil chairperson under the LBJ administration who championed, among other things, the institution of Medicare. As I was googling him, I found another quote that made me think:

"A movement to wake up America would have to be like the nation itself--not monolithic, not hierarchical, not dependant on a powerful charismatic leader rousing the masses, but leaders dispersed through all segments of society and down through all levels of the society, and upon an even greater number of vital and responsible citizens who don't necessarily think of themselves as 'leaders' but are in fact sharing leadership tasks. It cannot be centrally directed or tidy. Local effort is essential. Local responsibility is crucial... This is such a time. The next America will be forged 'out there' in America's communities."

President Obama has agreed with this principle, stressing time and again the importance of national service. You don't have to join the military, he said, to give back to your nation. You can do something as simple as clean up your neighborhood basketball court. He realizes he cannot fulfill his vow to change America by himself. I'm not sure how many Americans realize this, that change must be first a local effort. I think some people expected that America would automatically be a better place when he was elected, and the subsequent level of corporate jubilee reflects this. But remember what Gandhi said, that you must be the change you want to see in the world? I think many of us are just waiting around for the change to come to us. I know I'm guilty.

So, back to localized revolution. There is an element of localization in every revolution, isn't there. A one-man revolution doesn't bring about much change unless he garners followers who commit to his principles. The most successful revolutions begin with a group of people who share some discontent. It doesn't even have to be popular discontent -- just look at aristocratic revolutions like the Meiji Restoration and the French Revolution (oh wait, um, that wasn't exactly successful). The idea here is that many people have to work together in a causal effort to bring about a large-scale effect, and it begins on the lowest of levels. Top-down revolutions have to be disguised as bottom-up revolutions in order to be successful. What Nazi didn't think that Hitler's problems were his own?

The point of this entry, I guess, is that each of us is responsible. Every day is a day of personal reckoning. If I don't like the way something is, what have I done today to change it? If I want something, what have I done today to accomplish it? What do you think, should I become a motivational speaker? :) Anyway, that is the underlying theme of this blog, that we have been given days which are ours to use and ours to waste.