Great garden pic that I stumbled across yesterday (credit). * * * * * * * Wow, I've reduced myself to admiring garden pics. Can the nursing home be far behind? * * * * * * * Great piece by Ross Douthat at the New York Times yesterday. He points out that Washington and its suburbs have gotten remarkably wealthy in the past 15 years. He draws the undeniable parallel to Panem, the capitol city in the Hunger Games', whose parasitical existence comes at the expense of the rest of the country. Definitely check it out. The title says it all: Washington versus America. Excerpt: "[I]t doesn't seem like a sign of national health that America's political capital is suddenly richer than our capitals of manufacturing and technology and finance, or that our leaders are more insulated than ever from the trends buffeting the people they're supposed to serve." * * * * * * * I ran across one of my favorite Chesterton passages yesterday (seen here):
The Saint is a medicine because he is an antidote. Indeed that is why the saint is often a martyr; he is mistaken for a poison because he is an antidote. He will generally be found restoring the world to sanity by exaggerating whatever the”¦world neglects, which is by no means always the same element in every age. Yet each generation seeks its saint by instinct; and he is not what the people want, but rather what the people need.
It's from The Dumb Ox. I first read the book during my third year at law school. It was optional reading in my ethics class. I remember reading it in the courtyard of the old convent that housed graduate students like me. Those hours (or were they merely a few twenty minute sessions?) were some of the most serene in my life. Few things match a well-appointed outdoor setting, quiet, and a classic book.
