Liberal Art etc.

Liberal Art  (not to be confused with the

liberal arts—them majors, minors, poster

and capstone events.)

Envy is ignorance; imitation =  suicide.

Emerson said this and I envy and imitate

him. Admitting it is somewhat redemptive.

That's what I say. It's the denial & cover-up

that's toxic. My opinion, but it may have

been  said before by someone  else of

whom I am ignorant. 

Neither logic nor sermons convince, says

Whitman—nor facts, stats, polls or data.

Help me save the world by scolding, ridiculing,

mocking,  scorning, whipping with  displeasure

the ignorance, greed, envy, jealousy, deceiving,

contradicting, self-serving inconsistencies of all

them moochers, connivers, power-hungry,

trailer trash snake handlers  and affluent fearful

all over the place but especially across the aisle.

Or else accentuate the positive: bromides and

platitudes and passages from scripture,  pictures

of family gathering, dogs and kittens, pumpkin

pie, stories of folks who have overcome severe

hardships.  Pretty poems and public prayer to

warm the cockles of the heart and lift the

human spirit.

Einstein claimed the kind of thinking that gets

us into a muddle can’t be the kind that gets us

out but that was easy for him to say because

he was a genius.   I couldn’t tell you the “kind”

of thinking that gets me into  pickles let alone

the kind that would get me out.  Regardless

of Whatever:  Thinking is  Thinking is Thinking.

Is thinking about thinking a different kind than

just plain regular thinking?  We could argue. 

David Balzer admonished me: “Look, Sam, we’ve

got to talk about how we’re going to talk about

this before we talk about it. “  Think about how

we are thinking about something