Gleam of Splendour

"Creatures of a day! What is anyone? What is anyone not? A dream of a shadow Is our mortal being. But when there comes to menA gleam of splendour given of heaven,Then rests on them a light of gloryAnd blessed are their days." - Pindar, Pythian VIII How blessed are your days? If you feel …

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The Will to Live

Have you ever lost the will to live, or at least the will to continue living the way you were? If so, you’re not alone. This is a common feeling in the world the way it is, where each person pursues his own aims on a more or less self-centered basis, often irrespective of the …

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Ideology

Ideology does not liberate, it delineates. I often wonder if the choice between left and right is an argument over how to manage a world that most would admit in their saner, more sober moments must pass away. At its best it's like there are two deckhands arguing over the placement of the deck furniture …

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Giving Thanks

How far that little candle throws his beams!So shines a good deed in a naughty world.~ William Shakespeare, “Merchant of Venice” Anyone who performs a good deed in the world the way it now is runs the risk of casting pearls before swine. You needn’t look far to see that goodness and virtue are often …

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Abomination of Desolation

N.B. A word of caution. I have never used vulgarity in my thousands of posts over the years, but have chosen to do so in this post as a means of describing the abomination of desolation at hand. Man's world as it stands today is constantly decaying beneath his feet. His insecurities are multiplied by …

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Right Authority

Why do we teach our children that forgiveness, sharing, gratitude, humility, grace, compassion, and decent boldness are essential to our humanity and the preservation of civilized society, but then accept less than that from our elected leaders? If we excuse our leaders by saying that world is a hard and messy place and that we …

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Serving Others

My sister-in-law is studying medicine in Switzerland. I asked her about her training and a number of things stood out to me about the way they view and care for their patients. One of the most interesting was how the nurses are trained to care for patients who die in the hospital. Me: What are …

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A New Song

Interesting thought from the head of Britain’s armed forces, Nick Carter: “We have to remember that history might not repeat itself but it has a rhythm, and if you look back at the last century, before both world wars, I think it was unarguable that there was escalation which led to the miscalculation which ultimately …

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Love’s Command

Those who know me will attest to the fact that if there is any credo to which I have lived my life it is this: One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an …

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Grace and Rude Will

Within the infant rind of this small flower Poison hath residence, and medicine power; For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part; Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart. Two such opposed kings encamp them still In man as well as herbs—grace and rude will; And where the worser is predominant, Full …

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