Wednesday, November 03, 2004
I have been indulging in quotes to soothe my frazzled nerves. Socrates ('I know nothing except the fact of my own ignorance') isn't very encouraging, not in these particular circumstances. I know I'm ignorant. I freely concede that. It's very liberating to say that 'I Don't Know' - although it's not a viable exam strategy, of course.
A lot of this pre-GP angst consists of gazing into a disheartening abyss of ignorance, intellectual superficiality, linguistic clumsiness etc. etc. after encountering many, many examples of superior wisdom and expression that I really have no hope of emulating. Of
course I haven't got much of a clue. I'm no philosopher, student activist, or insightful essayist. I gave up on poetry and literature long ago for a life of secure banality and the well-trodden path. It all leads down the road to mediocrity, on and on to its uninspiring conclusion.
A less depressing quote I stumbled across, by an eccentric cowboy judge famous for his farcical court trials:
'You have been tried by twelve good men and true, not of your peers but as high above you as heaven is of hell, and they have said you are guilty. Time will pass and seasons will come and go. Spring with its wavin' green grass and heaps of sweet-smellin' flowers on every hill and in every dale. Then sultry Summer, with her shimmerin' heat-waves on the baked horizon. And Fall, with her yeller harvest moon and the hills growin' brown and golden under a sinkin' sun. And finally Winter, with its bitin', whinin' wind, and all the land will be mantled with snow. But you won't be here to see any of 'em; not by a damn sight, because it's the order of this court that you be took to the nearest tree and hanged by the neck til you're dead, dead, dead, you olive-colored son of a billy goat.' - 'Judge' Roy Bean
He was a poetic guy, at least. And what a punchline.
words were spilled on Wednesday, November 03, 2004
