Randomly posting a few of the greatest last sentences of all time:
It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.
—Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
(which also notably has a great first line, to wit: ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.’)
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
…I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. —James Joyce, Ulysses
The old man was dreaming about the lions. —Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky—seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.
—Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
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It’s been a busy twilight in our backyard. We had two whitetail deer visit. The picture is kind of crummy as I had to take it through a plate glass sliding door (opening the door would have scared them off). The two grazed for awhile then bounded off into the woods, flashing their white tails. A few minutes later, they were back with four friends.
In the meantime, the fox food is out and we are waiting for our Jigglyfox. (She has been fattening up nicely.) Sometimes she brings a friend or two. All in all, a great night for backyard nature watching.
The best quote from V for Vendetta—the power of words, the consequences of complacency (emphasis mine):
Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine — the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, whereby those important events of the past, usually associated with someone’s death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, are celebrated with a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.
I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn’t be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than 400 years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives. So if you’ve seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest that you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot.
Finally, an automated “email your representatives” doohickey that’s actually well written, and provides a fact-based, non-emotional explanation of why you are writing! Just reading the text helped me clarify exactly the problem with ACTA is, and how much I agree with opposing it.
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Disneyland with the Death Penalty, by William Gibson (of Neuromancer fame) for Wired Magazine. The article rambles a little, but the content is typical Gibson: well written and stocked with turns of phrase you’re tempted to scribble down and try and pass off later as your own. Singapore has been aggressively sanitized, scrubbed and repackaged. (The first warning about littering came from the taxi driver at the airport.) Gibson said it’s “the only thing I’ve ever written that caused a national government to make a formal complaint to the publisher … and then to ban the magazine for a while.”
Just a friendly reminder: What is legal is not always good. So don’t go getting morality and legality confused. The law has done its best to create a framework in which people can live happily and safely in community. Doesn’t always work that way, though.
An example of something that is legal, but not good. A man and woman who have been married for 20 years decide to separate. The husband drives to the bank and empties out the joint checking account. He cleans out their combined savings down to the last penny and then moves in with a younger woman. Hate to tell you this: totally legal.
An example of something that is legal, but not good. The Missionaries of Charity (Mother Theresa’s order of nuns) tried to open a homeless shelter in the South Bronx, but shut down the project after endless hassling with red tape, the final straw being the city’s insistence on installing elevators, despite the fact that they would violate the sisters’ vow of poverty. From “Crafting a Better Legal Code” via the Philanthropy Roundtable: “The nuns withdrew from the project with a politely worded statement noting that the experience had ‘served to educate us about the law and its many complexities.’” The homeless shelter died a totally legal death, and so most likely did some of the homeless people who remained on the streets.
An example of something that is illegal, but is not bad. A person suffering in the final stages of HIV/AIDS, who has wasted away to a mere 75 pounds, and a person undergoing extremely high doses of chemo, both use marijuana medically to stimulate their appetites. Instead of dying painfully of starvation, they keep enough weight on to fight another day. Totally illegal. Yet a really good idea.
And so on, and so on. I am not suggesting we stop making laws or that we overhaul the legal code or anything drastic like that. Just suggesting that you use the law as a legal compass, not necessarily a moral one.
Wouldn’t it be great if people really thought about things instead of vomiting up confused snatches of ideologies swallowed whole from the brains of others? Wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t it be great if everyone was really interested in knowing what their own beliefs actually are and why? This is my question of the day. Or perhaps the year. Decade?
You know, I really don’t mind getting into a discussion with people who have a different perspective than I do. I am not someone who needs consensus in life. I relish a little intellectual chaos. It can bring new and compelling information to the table. It can expand your mind. As long as such discussions are essentially polite (heated is okay) and the goal is information exchange rather than the brutal subjugation of a differing viewpoint. I’ve been known to modify my position after talking something through with someone who, in a reasoned way, helped me see it differently.
But IF you’re gonna go there. If you really want to get up in someone’s grille about something, you better make sure you have your ducks in a row or there is a better than even chance you will get pwned. Some people get so self-righteously VESTED in whatever the ideology of the week is, they’re so blindly COMMITTED to some cool little slogan they picked up somewhere, they will cross lines to defend it to the death without pausing to reflect first.
That, people, is not a discussion. It’s a fight. A discussion can be win-win. A fight is always a zero sum game.
If someone lays an unpleasant truth on you or catches you in a logical contradiction, it is incumbent on you to deal with it in some way that holds water. Admitting there’s a problem with some part of your argument DOES NOT invalidate your whole position. At the very least, you can use that kind of feedback to help you tighten up your own shit.
Think it through. Stay loose. Stay open to the possibility that you might not be right on all counts. Keep it civil. If you’re tempted to roll your eyes or peel off a label from your easy-access dispenser, refrain. Keep those personal remarks to yourself.
But most importantly, don’t drink the Kool-Aid, people.
The best quote from V for Vendetta—the power of words, the consequences of complacency (emphasis mine):
