E.C. Walsh Blogsphere

Beware of people who would be sole agents, arbiters, and avengers for your karma. Your “Judge Dredds.” In my opinion, karma is about more than inter-personal judgments. As Bob Marley might put it, sometimes you have to “screw face and bear it.”

As a Christian, I believe in more than karma anyway: grace for instance, “grace abounding” as John Bunyan  (who wrote about grace from a prison cell as Boethius, mentioned yesterday, wrote about consolation from prison) and St. Paul wrote and as in John Newton’s hymn “Amazing Grace.”  In this context, consider George Herbert’s “Love (3)”:

Thinking of consolations. Boethius famously wrote “Consolation of Philosophy” in the 6th century from a jail cell pending execution after being betrayed while in high office.  “No man can ever truly be secure until he has been forsaken by Fortune,” the text reads. I suppose the idea is such a fall requires one to rely on spirit and virtue. More recently Alain de Botton updated the notion in Boethius’ title, using different philosophers to address various problems in life.

It is less cerebral perhaps, but I think consolation can also be found in poetry. I think of this one occasionally by Robert Frost, “Acquainted with the Night.” The last stanza seems a rejoinder to Hamlet saying the time is out of joint.  It is a palliative for insomniacs:

Thinking today about cooling-off periods. When I was still foolish enough to engage with people of  ill will (hackers/vandals) on my professional Facebook site, one of them said, “you brought this upon yourself.”

I almost responded, “that sounds like something a rapist would say,” but held back. I think the very nature of heated exchanges i s that they require cooling-off periods. “Simma down now!” was the funny repeated line from an old SNL skit.

But really, avoid telling people they have brought their problems upon themselves. If they really have, they usually already know it and you are pouring salt on a wound.

Update: the heat index here today is 100 degrees, and my air con has broken down. Need a literal cooling-off period.

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..” ― John Milton, “Paradise Lost”

I am probably getting out of my depths again, but my thoughts today are on psychosomatics, the idea that many pains are in our heads. The brain is  part of the nervous system, so the pain is physical in that sense. But a distinction can be made between brain and mind. Mind might be more closely attributed to the ancient Greek “psycho” that begins the word. And the mind seems more a matter of will, attitude, and choice than the brain.

Since the 20th century the term “positive mental attitude” has been popular in psychology. I think having PMA affects your physical health and believe in psychosomatics in that way.

“People move around so much now, and it’s funny how those crossed-off addresses and change-of-address stickers can look like accusations.” –Stephen King.

Have changed address a few times since 2017 and may move again soon. It’s okay and better than going stagnant in one place, but generally I subscribe to the still-waters-run-deep platitude.

Here’s a funny take on the idea of moving on from The Onion: https://www.theonion.com/man-thinking-about-just-packing-up-and-making-exact-sam-1819577647

“Fail again, fail better.” It is one of S. Beckett’s most famous lines.

He was a very sympathetic writer, a bit obtuse. That is why I prefer his plays to his novels.

A similar quote I heard is,”failure isn’t final.” Always learning.

I don’t want to go into the details on this, but I briefly met a young opiate addict recently who was a bit angry his doctors were giving him medicine that didn’t work as well for his pain as opiates and then seemed to be blaming him for having opiate addiction.

I have real sympathy for addicts. Life is difficult, and some of us have damaged pasts.

But as my Mom says you have to grow up. There’s a famous line from “The Catcher in the Rye”: “Grow up Holden.” Yes.

Moving on. Thoughts today about self-discipline.

I read a lot for my PhD. Maybe not as much as I should have, but my book is based on a lot of genuine research I did.

I told one of the priests at my high school I wanted to be a writer, and he replied I did not read enough. I have had a few years of torpor but seem to have got out of it. It is back to books.

Deleted. Sometimes in retrospect, I embarrass myself.