For You

Romanticism / Samuel Palmer/ The Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine from the Palatine, Rome 1839

Day four of six days of retirement practice.  Doing good so far.  Today is about laundry and pottering about.  Planning on bottling this quarter’s cider batch and vacuuming the place.  Might do one more thing beyond that but reply is currently hazy.

Been pondering the state of affairs here in the good ol’ USA.  I am praying that this little boring interlude that we are going through now lasts as long as it possibly can.  Finger’s crossed.  I am getting more certain that there will be a serious adjustment to things in the next year or so.  We are due and there are folks about who seem to be doing their level best to make such a thing happen.  All I can do about it is to change my ways.  

Back to some philosophy.  I will now present what I am referring to as Ennis’ Addendum.  Whenever someone makes a declarative statement of any type, and tries to present that statement as a universal truth, it is critical that you repeat the sentence silently in your brain and add as a suffix to the statement “for you”.  Simple huh?

Now, there are those of you out there that will shriek in horror at this total affirmation of moral relativism and lack of respect for authority, but you will notice that the directions proffered specifically require “silently”.  Because you see, that is where you have to start.  Try it out.  Really simple.  But I think that it is where you have to start.

One of the problems that we are beginning to notice is that our culture’s worship at the triple altars of “celebrity”, “expertise” and “credentialism” really isn’t getting us where we need to be.  Our new nobility has kinda let us down and there isn’t really any evidence that they will cease doing so anytime soon.  But here is the problem, they have power right now and they will use the three tools described above to 1) tell you what to do and 2) retain that power.

Now, you are probably thinking that I am speaking of such far-off shibboleths as the national power structure.  Naw.  If you believe a word that they tell you in light of the facts now available concerning the past forty years, you have not been paying any attention.  Nope, this simple plan is aimed at those folks around you.  

Right now it appears that the culture we live in is riven apart into two warring camps, each with a set of perceptions and worldviews that appear to be all but reconcilable.  Both of these camps swear that if we would just use their approved listing of credentialed celebrity experts, life will be just dandy and we can all go back to living on big rock candy mountain.

Just remember the simple words “for you” and keep your hand on your wallet.