Wednesday, June 06, 2018                                               6:42 PM

Oh, I Hope So   (2018Jun06)

Some people are born with impressively large and powerful bodies. Some people are born with sharp and powerful minds. Some are even born with both. My first reaction has always been to envy such people—but I have learned to turn away from envy, or try to.

They have their roll of the dice, I have my mine—we are all somewhere on the human spectrum. And those placed at the high end can have difficulties and sorrows equal to those placed at the low end—just as we in the middle have the troubles of those in the middle.

We should admire such people honestly—after all, if we could be Adonises or geniuses, we wouldn’t say no—but we should save our respect for people whose wisdom is tempered by love.

‘Tough guys’ like to laugh at the ‘Boy Scouts’ of the world—and, in honesty, there is nothing so ridiculous as a failed Boy Scout. I have played the part—and, while I wasn’t laughing, everyone else surely was. But real character is nothing to laugh at. It has a strength that cuts through the ‘tough guys’ like butter. It has the ability to demand the respect of strangers—who won’t even necessarily know why—they’ll only know that they’re witnessing power.

People, whether lazy or ambitious, will usually scruple to put themselves in danger—people of character have no such qualms—you have to put them down to stop them. When you threaten people of character, you only confirm their decision that you must be opposed.

In the early days of the Revolution, the American colonies would seem to have been a target-rich environment for character—how else could a rabble have improvised such an unlikely military victory—and followed up, not with a new tyranny, but with the embryo of a global empire based on Liberty and Democracy? I fear that today’s America does not lend itself nearly so well to building persons of character—but I hope to be proved wrong. By my son, by my daughter, by my granddaughter, by all my nieces and nephews, and by their whole generations—oh, I hope so.

 

+*-*+          +*-*+ +*-*+ +*-*++*-*+    +*-*+ +*-*+ +*-*+

Question: Why not grant clemency to ALL non-violent first-time drug-offenders unfairly sentenced to life in prison—who have already served two decades of their sentences? Why on earth stop at the celebrity’s grandma (bless her heart)?

Question: If the only thing that stops a bad man with a gun, is a good man with a gun, should all good men with guns head for the border-facilities where HSA is keeping all those children in cages?

Question: Paul Ryan—how long does ‘unfortunate’ remain acceptable in a sitting president?

 

XperDunn plays Piano
June 4th, 2018

Improv – with the Hand-Maid – Part 1

 

Selections from Musick’s Hand-Maid – Part 2

 

Improv – with the Hand-Maid – Part 3

 

ttfn.