Comments on: Do we define our circumstances, or do circumstances define us?

By: TB

TB — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:03:10 +0000

Great stuff! I remembered the drink routine, but had completely forgotten the magnetic armor gag.

By: ER

ER — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 03:11:35 +0000

Choices often resolve to a question of semantics. Here’s the answer to your question. Listen carefully.

And check out the young Angela Lansbury!

By: TB

TB — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 02:51:58 +0000

Depends on which definition of “right” you’re using: morality, or accuracy?

By: ER

ER — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 02:43:29 +0000

Neither are “right” and “true”.

By: TB

TB — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 02:39:30 +0000

Another subtle distinction is that “simple” and “easy” are not synonyms.

By: ER

ER — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 02:32:18 +0000

You’re right, it’s a subtle distinction, but certainly a valid one. But still, be careful, I do believe I detect a bit of hubris there. That’s not a scolding, its a report from the front lines.

Simple answers too often have an annoying way of turning out too simple to be right, and too easy to be true, whether we happen to like them or not.

Case in point, one bitter lesson I’ve learned is that a lot of things I used to be convinced of I’m not too sure about anymore, or as Bob Dylan put it, “Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”

Or as Bob Seger, our other great poet of the Midwest phrased it, even more succintly, “I wish I didn’t know then what I didn’t know now.”

By: TB

TB — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 02:05:13 +0000

I like that.

Saw another one on a small plaque in a doctor’s office: “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.”

By: TB

TB — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 02:03:13 +0000

Not “the most important” questions. “Most important questions.” Note the difference. That people are still looking for other answers to important questions besides the ones that work that they don’t like, I can’t do much about that. It’s human nature.

And, of course, there are always new big questions coming along, and a hell of a lot of minor questions every day.

By: ER

ER — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 01:30:32 +0000

It’s the oldest cliché in the book, especially coming from Barnacle Bill,
but it still applies. There
is nothing you can do about the wind, but you can always change the trim of your sails.

By: ER

ER — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 01:24:15 +0000

The most important questions don’t have any answers at all. That
is why they are called “important questions”. If they were that easy, nobody would still be asking them. The ones with the simple answers aren’t questions at all. That’s why the answers were so simple.

If you already know all the answers, its because they’re the ones you wanted to hear. But as long as you’re still asking questions, instead of conning yourself into thinking you’ve got it all sorted out, as long as you realize you don’t know for sure, you at least have a fighting chance of getting it right.

It’s all right to be confused, but over-confidence will kill you.

Any questions, grasshopper? Koan my way?