Wednesday
I cancelled by audible.com membership last Sunday, then saw this passage from an essay by Bradley Birzer:
"[B]ecoming enthralled with audible.com and the joy of being read to, my “reading”–a mix of real reading as well as listening to books–has at least doubled and nearly trebled my relationship with good reads. In no way do I want to sound something akin to “Seven Habits of Highly Effective Humans.” I am the last person you would want to model if you are looking for “efficient” use of time. I despise the word “efficient” unless it is in the context of energy consumption. It really does not belong in a conversation about humanity or human to human relations. But, deep into middle age, I also realize how limited our time on this big blue world is." Link.
I agree with him on Audible. It's a neat service. Unfortunately, I don't spend much time in the car, so the only times I listen to audio for hours and hours is in the spring and fall (gardening times). During winter and summer, I find listening time is amply covered by free podcasts.
Birzer lives just an hour from me. He seems to be one of those guys that I would greatly enjoy having a few drinks with (this article calls him "The Libertarian Who Loves Kirk"). Long-time TDE readers know I'm libertarian and my Kirk essay is one of my better pieces of work.
I wrote the above paragraph before I noticed that he has just published a biography about Russell Kirk, which I'll almost certainly have to buy (or add to my Christmas list). The problem is, he's probably not thinking, "Scheske is one of those guys I'd greatly enjoy having a few drinks with." And even if he is thinking that, I assume that, since he appears to be my age (we both have sons in 11th grade and daughters in 9th grade), he's in the throes of time zap, which makes even fleeting pleasurable pursuits nearly impossible.
But hey, Professor Birzer, if you see this post, give me a call. Neither of us ever met Kirk, but I spoke to him on the phone once (an impetuous youngster confounded with Eric Voegelin's Israel and Revolution, I picked up the phone, dialed information, then called him; he came to the phone and was quite charitable). I'm easy to find. Based on some Internet searches, I suspect we've attended a few of the same high school cross-country invitationals.
