Boethius, The Consolation 3.42

. . . “Then nothing need oppose God's way for its own nature's preservation.”

“No.”

“But if it try to oppose Him, will it ever have any success at all against One whom we have justly allowed to be supremely powerful in matters of happiness?”

“Certainly not.”

“Then there is nothing which could have the will or the power to resist the highest good?”

“I think not.”

“Then it is the highest good which is guiding with strength and disposing with gentleness?”

Then I said, “How great pleasure these things give me! Not only those that have been proved by the strongest arguments, but still more the words in which you prove them, which make me ashamed that my folly has bragged so loudly.”

“You have heard in mythology how the giants attacked heaven. It was this kindly strength that overthrew them too, as was their desert. But would you care to put these arguments at variance? For perhaps from such a friction, some fair spark of truth may leap forth.”

“As you hold best,” I said.

“Nobody would care to doubt that God is all-powerful?”

“At any rate, no sane man would doubt it.”

Being, then, all-powerful, nothing is beyond His power?”

“Nothing.”

“Can, then, God do evil?”

“No.”

“Then evil is nothing, since it is beyond His power, and nothing is beyond His power?” . . .

—from Book 3, Prose 12

The argument here, or any that points to the ultimate and the transcendent, will make no sense at all if I am only considering God as some thing, instead of as the thing.

It isn’t just that God is somehow bigger, or better, or stronger than anything else, it is that anything else only is through God. The relative is only possible through the absolute, the effect through the cause, the part through the whole.

To know this gives ultimate meaning to the mind, and lasting rest to the heart, precisely because it leaves nothing out. And thinking along these terms, at the very bounds of what is and what can be, will also lead to two profound but startling conclusions:

First, if God, or the Divine, or the Absolute, is perfect in goodness and power, then totally nothing is beyond that power.

Second, if God, the Divine, or the Absolute, is perfect in goodness and power, then evil is totally nothing.

Yes, the first one is already hard enough to fathom, but the second one seems downright absurd; yet it is only a consequence of the arguments we have already seen. I am simply not used to it, thinking only in the limited terms of a creature, and convinced that evil itself is some sort of substantial entity.

Like Boethius at the beginning of the text, I can be quite vain, assuming that my particular wants are all that is needed, and that it is only evil things happening to me that are getting in the way of my wants. First, I have to grasp that my happiness fits into a bigger picture of the good, and then second, I must also realize that the many events of fortune are hardly evil at all.

See, I may be locked into a picture of the world where God is “up there”, doing good things, and the Devil is “down there”, doing bad things, and I am stuck in the middle, getting bits and pieces of each. I am, however, still giving finite restrictions to Divine infinity, admitting only some good instead of all good, and adding a list of conditions to omnipotence.

Anything that has a limit must necessarily admit of other things, because it is the very division between them that defines what they are. That won’t be true of something limitless, however, where supreme existence, goodness, power, knowledge, beauty, justice, compassion, or any other property at all, can admit of nothing else.

It won’t just be a matter of whether God can or cannot “do” evil, but whether such a thing is able to exist at all within his perfection.

Or, if I say something is “this big”, I can still think of something bigger, of what is beyond it. But when something is the biggest, there is nothing else beyond it. Where there is complete goodness and power, there evil is nothing at all, because it has no power.

Don’t think that Boethius is just going to blindly agree with Lady Philosophy here, to let her off the hook so easily. There is far too much at stake, the very balance of good and evil itself, and Lady Philosophy is going to challenge Boethius to the core about how to explain all the things that seem right and wrong in this life.

Written in 10/2015

Dhammapada 61

If a traveler does not meet with one who is his better, or his equal, let him firmly keep to his solitary journey; there is no companionship with a fool. 

Vulnerable

Inconvenience

Resigned

From The Prisoner (Episode 1, "Arrival"), only one of the craziest and wisest TV shows ever made:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osNmf_zmSyE 

Epictetus, Golden Sayings 103

Even as bad actors cannot sing alone, but only in chorus: so some cannot walk alone. 

Man, if you are anything, strive to walk alone and hold converse with yourself, instead of skulking in the chorus! 

At length think; look around you; bestir yourself, that you may know who you are! 

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.3

The things are three of which you are composed: a little body, a little breath of life, and the intelligence.

Of these the first two are yours, so far as it is your duty to take care of them, but the third alone is properly yours.

Therefore if you shall separate from yourself, that is, from your understanding, whatever others do or say, and whatever you have done or said yourself, and whatever future things trouble you because they may happen;

and whatever in the body that envelops you, or in the breath of life, which is by nature associated with the body, is attached to you independent of your will;

and whatever the external circumfluent vortex whirls round, so that the intellectual power exempt from the things of fate can live pure and free by itself, doing what is just and accepting what happens and saying the truth;

and if you will separate, I say, from this ruling faculty the things that are attached to it by the impressions of sense, and the things of time to come and of time that is past, and will make yourself like Empedocles' sphere,

"All round and in its joyous rest reposing;”

and if you shall strive to live only what is really your life, that is, the present—then you will be able to pass that portion of life that remains for you up to the time of your death, free from perturbations, nobly, and obedient to your own daemon, to the god that is within you.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 12.3 (tr Long)

I can be quite foolish. Yes, I will gladly laugh along with your jokes. I arrogantly tried to go straight to the Greek here, thinking I could somehow “improve” Long’s version, in order to avoid that terrible run-on sentence. Even a desperate appeal to other translations didn’t help me. I will save it all for someone far more gifted.

Still, the meaning becomes quite clear, requiring only a bit of squinting and squirming.

I may say that three things are mine: my body, my life, and my thoughts. That is already quite an improvement upon the usual illusion, that my property is mine, or that my reputation is mine, or that my credentials are mine. They have nothing to do with me, of course, and even my body and my life are only lent to me; I am given care over them, and I do not actually possess them.

No, only my mind and will are my own for now. That sounds quite wonderful in theory, but how can I possibly live my life in practice, without all the other bits and pieces people insist must define me?

Well, I don’t have to live how they tell me I must; I can live as I know that I must. I should strip away everything that is extraneous, and reveal who I truly am, beneath all the bluster and the noise. If I don’t really care for the trappings, they won’t trouble me.

I know full well how the priests, the politicians, and the businessmen lie to me. I have been their fool all along, and I knew it all along. I played along, only in the hope of becoming one of them. Then there is that moment, when it’s time to clean all the accumulated crud off of my glasses.

Love others, but do not care what they say about you. That isn’t you.

Learn from your mistakes, but do not let others shame you about them. You can now be a new man.

If they tell you to worry about your future, know that they are playing you. Your merit is immediately in your present.

Are you weak, or sick, or dying? Are they trying to corner you by selling you magic cures? These are not the cures you need.

The situation seems hopeless, but your merit isn’t about your situation. Your merit is about your choices, in whatever circumstances you may find yourself.

Wait, they want you to lie, to cheat, and to steal for them? You are better than that, and you are more than that.

You feel hungry, despondent, lonely, and abandoned? There is your chance, what a wonderful chance, to be everything they tell you that you cannot be, to be everything they choose not to be. Be human, even as they deny their own humanity.

You are finally about to go. Yes, it comes to us all. So die with dignity, and without any shame. Stand up.

We assume that the winners die with the most toys, yet the best people die with a good conscience. The difference is like that between night and day.

Perhaps the scoundrels have found a way to sleep well at night; I know only that I must find a way to live well right now, removing all the external obstacles to my inner peace. Cast aside anything and everything that gets in the way of first and foremost being a good man. Dispose of the residue.

Replace the impression of glory with the substance of decency. It will be a joyous rest, indeed.

Written in 7/2009

Aesop's Fables 3

The Dog and the Shadow

It happened that a Dog had got a piece of meat and was carrying it home in his mouth to eat it in peace. 

Now on his way home he had to cross a plank lying across a running brook. As he crossed, he looked down and saw his own shadow reflected in the water beneath. Thinking it was another dog with another piece of meat, he made up his mind to have that also. 

So he made a snap at the shadow in the water, but as he opened his mouth the piece of meat fell out, dropped into the water and was never seen more.

Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.

Franz Jägerstätter—Some Pictures

Sent by a kindred spirit. We won't forget. 

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.2

God sees the minds of all men bared of the material vesture and rind and impurities. For with His intellectual part alone He touches the intelligence only which has flowed and been derived from Himself into these bodies.

And if you also use yourself to do this, you will rid yourself of your many troubles. For he who regards not the poor flesh that envelops him, surely will not trouble himself by looking after raiment and dwelling and fame and such like externals and show.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 12.2 (tr Long)

Philosophers do like their profound discussions about the distinction between soul and body, the differences between mind and matter, and I will be the first geek to be enthralled by such an inquiry. After all, it asks nothing less than what we are made of, and how we are put together.

At the same time, I am always wary of being too concerned with dividing our existence, at the expense of appreciating its unity. The Stoics generally avoided the temptations of dualism, of making two worlds out of one, and so often spoke of all existence as different expressions of the very same matter.

My mind is not over here, and my body is not over there, two separate things barely touching, or perhaps even in conflict with one another.

All things share in one existence, and all things proceed from one act of being. Yet the mind behaves very differently than the body, and in its actions rises above the limitations of any unknowing matter.

In being self-aware, it is not merely moved, but moves itself. Mind embodies being more perfectly, precisely because it embraces meaning and purpose; that which is lesser is informed by the awareness within that which is greater.

While necessarily joined and intermingled together, mind and body reveal the different degrees with which Nature expresses herself. I can only make sense of the latter through the direction of the former.

All subtle metaphysics aside, what does this mean when I look at myself? It is the conscious mind within me that is the center of my humanity, that around which all my other layers of flesh and blood, of passions and possessions, of power and fame, must revolve.

What is most dignified about me? It is that which most fully reflects the Divine within me, the power of reason and will.

Once I grasp this, I will not care so much for how handsome I look, or how strong and healthy my body is, or how many pretty things I can own, or how many other people I can impress with all these flashy appearances. My worth will be in my character, not in the accessories I attach to myself.

There I can discover what is truly beautiful about a person, that depth of wisdom and virtue, the willingness to face all things with understanding and love. Whatever state my body may be in, it must be subject to my soul.

Am I really looking for the true, the good, and the beautiful in myself, and in others? It will be found deep down inside, where the soul touches God. There I will learn to love myself, and to love my neighbor, looking beyond what only gratifies my gut.

Written in 7/2009

Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ 2.7

Of loving Jesus above all things

1. Blessed is he who understands what it is to love Jesus, and to despise himself for Jesus' sake. He must give up all that he loves for his Beloved, for Jesus will be loved alone above all things. The love of created things is deceiving and unstable, but the love of Jesus is faithful and lasting. He who cleaves to created things will fall with their slipperiness; but he who embraces Jesus will stand upright for ever. Love Him and hold Him for your friend, for He will not forsake you when all depart from you, nor will he suffer you to perish at the last. You must one day be separated from all, whether you will it or will it not.

2. Cleave to Jesus in life and death, and commit yourself unto His faithfulness, who, when all men fail you, is alone able to help you.Your Beloved is such, by nature, that He will suffer no rival, but alone will possess your heart, and as a king will sit upon His own throne. If you would learn to put away from you every created thing, Jesus would freely take up His abode with you.You will find all trust little better than lost which you have placed in men, and not in Jesus. Trust not nor lean upon a reed shaken with the wind, because all flesh is grass, and the goodliness thereof falls as the flower of the field.

3. You will be quickly deceived if you look only upon the outward appearance of men, for if you seek your comfort and profit in others, you shall too often experience loss. If you seek Jesus in all things you shall verily find Jesus, but if you seek yourself you shall also find yourself, but to your own hurt. For if a man seeks not Jesus he is more hurtful to himself than all the world and all his adversaries.

Carl Jung

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.1

All those things at which you wish to arrive by a circuitous road you can have now, if you do not refuse them to yourself. And this means, if you will take no notice of all the past, and trust the future to Providence, and direct the present only conformably to piety and justice.

Conformably to piety that you may be content with the lot that is assigned to you, for Nature designed it for you and you for it.

Conformably to justice, that you may always speak the truth freely and without disguise, and do the things that are agreeable to law and according to the worth of each. And let neither another man's wickedness hinder you, nor opinion nor voice, nor yet the sensations of the poor flesh which has grown about you; for the passive part will look to this.

If, then, whatever the time may be when you shall be near to your departure, neglecting everything else you shall respect only your ruling faculty and the Divinity within you, and if you shall be afraid not because you must some time cease to live, but if you shall fear never to have begun to live according to Nature—then you will be a man worthy of the Universe that has produced you, and you will cease to be a stranger in your native land, and to wonder at things that happen daily as if they were something unexpected, and to be dependent on this or that.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 12.1 (tr Long)

The difficulty is never in how long it may take, or how much blood and sweat may happen to go into it. The difficulty is in a single choice, in one act of conviction, and in the moral courage necessary to maintain that conviction, renewing it calmly, day by day. There are no profound secrets; there is a simple decision.

I am the only fellow who is able to stop me. There are no other obstacles at all. I might like to blame her, or to point fingers at him, or to insist that those folks brought me down. No one ever brought me down, and no one ever tripped me up. I remain my own worst enemy, and I also remain my own best friend.

What has happened cannot be changed, and it will be a burden if I choose to carry it further. What will happen will most certainly be, and it will be a burden if I fail to see that whatever is, is so for a perfectly good reason. The most basic fact remains: choose to act with character, and the rest takes care of itself.

How is this possible? No altered external circumstances are required. Altered judgment is required.

Will it bring pain? Very likely. Will I be dragged in the dirt? Quite possibly. Will I be left with no possessions? Be prepared for it. Will my life end before I would like? Roll the bones.

That will only seem unbearable if I measure my life by what is done, not by what I do, if I am the victim instead of the agent. Rebuild the man, and you rebuild the whole bag of expectations, forgetting all the garbage coming in, and working on all the merit coming out. Redefine the nature of the reward.

Be pious. I can explain it however it works for me, but I should know that I am a part of a whole, to which I am in service, and which is also in service to me. Respect the order of Creation, and the purpose behind it all.

Be just. I can express it however it makes sense to me, but I should know that I am made to love others. Am I not getting what I think I deserve? Yes I am, because I am giving what I am meant to give, and my reward is already within my own excellence.

No vice from another will destroy me; only my own vice will do that. Let the rest take care of itself.

Lonely? Confused? Frustrated? Yes, all of the time, because it doesn’t always go as I prefer. Allow all of that to be itself, and then I can learn to be myself.

Written in 7/2009

Sayings of Ramakrishna 9

In a potter's shop there are vessels of different shapes and forms—pots, jars, dishes, plates, and so on—but all are made of one clay.

So God is one, but is worshiped in different ages and climes under different names and aspects.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 11.39

Socrates used to say, what do you want, souls of rational men or irrational?

“Souls of rational men.”

Of what rational men, sound or unsound?

“Sound.”

Why then do you not seek for them?

“Because we have them.”

Why then do you fight and quarrel?

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 11.39 (tr Long)

If I am being so reasonable, why am I being so petty, so small-minded, and so vindictive? Why am I thinking and acting as if understanding requires conflict? When did I start assuming that I was already born wise, instead of having to put some effort into learning it?

How tragic, how dangerous, when what I call the sensible solution is the one that ends with the most tears.

The ambiguous way we sometime use words hardly helps me here. A “good” argument can be a chain of reasoning that leads me to the truth, or a “good” argument can be an exercise in raising myself up by putting other people down.

I shudder to think of the times I felt proud inside, not because I had expressed something with insight and clarity, but because I had said it in the most clever and dismissive way possible.

This was the reason I was never fond of formal debates, and why I was never cut out for politics. It was taken for granted that being right or wrong required there being winners and losers, and that the winners were distinguished from the losers by a popularity contest.

There will indeed be disagreement in life, but wouldn’t it be better if disagreements were resolved instead of compounded? I never could grasp why opposition was seen as being so much nobler than cooperation.

Perhaps it boils down to the difference between being right as something that is shared with others, and being right as something that gives us power over others. Solidarity appears quite rational to me, because respect proceeds from understanding others for who and what they are. Dominance appears quite thoughtless to me, because control proceeds from making others subject only to my gratification.

Acting out of love seems one of the most reasonable things one can do, acting out of the hate one of the most unreasonable.

Written in 7/2009

Stoic Conversations 6

"Look at the guys she was with before you, and look at the guys she was with after you. You were that one good guy in the middle of all the garbage!"

"No, sadly her taste was quite consistent. I was just another piece of garbage that happened to be in the middle. And she didn't make me that way, I did that all by myself. Now it's time to clean myself up. No more excuses."

Bless your heart. . .

Things people say to depressives that they don’t say in other life-threatening situations:

‘COME ON, I know you’ve got tuberculosis, but it could be worse. At least no one’s died.’

‘Why do you think you got cancer of the stomach?’

‘Yes, I know, colon cancer is hard, but you want to try living with someone who has got it? Sheesh. Nightmare.’

‘Oh, Alzheimer’s you say? Oh, tell me about it, I get that all the time.’

‘Ah, meningitis. Come on, mind over matter.’

‘Yes, yes, your leg is on fire, but talking about it all the time isn’t going to help things, is it?’

‘Okay. Yes. Maybe your parachute has failed. But chin up.’

Reblog and help fight the stigma.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 11.38

The dispute then, he said, is not about any common matter, but about being a madman or not.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 11.38 (tr Long)

A friend and I were once walking through a fancy part of Boston, the one they now call the Financial District. There were skyscrapers packed with stockbrokers and lawyers making big money, and also streets packed with poor folks looking for spare change. My buddy tripped over the foot of a homeless man, and he got quite upset.

“You piece of crap, get a job! Man, you must be insane to live like you do! Insane! Insane! Insane!”

See, I did not at all like what he said, but I bit my tongue. Still, what he said stuck with me for years, and I would often ask myself: who was really insane, the suits in the offices, or the bums in the gutter?

Some people debate and argue to help them understand, but most people debate and argue to show how important they are. Usually, we debate and argue about petty things, about the outliers, about questions of partisan policy. It’s all quite mundane.

Do I really think that Mr. Who or Ms. What, from the Hippo Party or the Rhino Party respectively, are any different in their values? They smile, they pander, and they get donations at dinner parties. It will make absolutely no difference in my common life if one or the other wins this popularity contest.

Tax rates, worries about which wars we should fight, and the many ways to save the polar bears are all distractions from the deeper questions. Don’t give me a list of all the trendy things you will do. Tell me what you think is true and false, right and wrong, straight to the core. Reveal your character to me. Get naked for me, not in your body, but in your soul.

Show me whether you are sane or insane.

That is the only question that matters. Sanity and insanity are not about whether you wear a suit or wear rags. Sanity and insanity are not about whatever chemical imbalance the pharmaceutical companies are currently selling a product for. Sanity and insanity are not about holding a view that is popular or unpopular.

No. What makes us sane is not our obsession with flighty opinions, but a moral compass guided by sound reason. Know right from wrong, do right instead of wrong.

I recognize the sane man because he looks me in the eye, and he gives me a straight answer. There is no bullshit.

I recognize the insane man because he distracts me with trivialities. He doesn’t even understand himself. I can smell him from a mile away.

Who is truly insane, the homeless man, or the heartless man? 

Written in 7/2009

Sayings of Socrates 18

Someone will say: And are you not ashamed, Socrates, of a course of life which is likely to bring you to an untimely end? 

To him I may fairly answer: There you are mistaken. A man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong—acting the part of a good man or of a bad man. 

. . . For wherever a man's place is, whether the place he has chosen, or that where he has been placed by a commander, there he ought to remain in the hour of danger; he should not think of death, or of anything, but only of disgrace. 

—Plato, Apology 28b–d

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 11.37

Epictetus also said, a man must discover an art with respect to giving his assent.

And in respect to his movements he must be careful that they be made with regard to circumstances, that they be consistent with social interests, that they have regard to the value of the object.

And as to sensual desire, he should altogether keep away from it.

And as to avoidance, he should not show it with respect to any of the things that are not in our power.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 11.37 (tr Long)

I would often sit and wonder about the secrets of life, about how I could somehow tap into all those profound truths that only the most enlightened of sages could hope to access. The wisdom of it surely must be hidden, I thought, or otherwise so many of us out here in the world wouldn’t be so terribly miserable. It had to be arcane and esoteric, since common sense clearly wasn’t doing it for the rest of us.

Take a ride home on the subway during rush hour, and you will immediately see the plight of man. If he could, he would certainly do better than this. If it were within his power, he would find a way out of this.

But it is well within my power, and it demands no initiation into mysteries. I have not failed to acquire any cryptic principles of life; I have only overlooked that most basic of rules, that I should look before I leap.

The art of living well is not just reserved for the special folks. Let reason guide over passion, and let understanding give purpose to desire.

Good habits of life come from practice, and good practice comes from action, and good action comes from reflection. It doesn’t require thinking about it for a long time, but rather thinking about it well. Thinking more will rarely help me, while thinking more thoroughly always does. A moment is enough.

When should I say “yes” to anything? When I grasp the actual conditions I am facing, instead of just spouting elaborate principles and platitudes. Grandstanding will not do. Let my values serve the actual situation. Does it make me a better man, or only a richer, more gratified, or more popular man?

By what measure should I decide what to do? When I show love to others, to all others, and without any exception to that requirement. Must someone else be abandoned, rejected, or cast aside? Then I am choosing poorly. It amazes me how many people say they have done right, while at same time doing wrong to others.

How should I face my passions? Let me by all means enjoy life, but let me not be ruled by my enjoyment. Am I doing it only because it is fun? There is that very leaping, all without the looking. There is action, divorced from thought. There is desire, separated from responsibility.

Are there things I should avoid? Yes, but not the things I usually think of as harmful to me. If they have nothing to do with what I can make better from my own character, I am called to let them be. I will not run away from your mockery, or your abuse, or your hatred. Do what you must; I will do what I must do to improve myself.

None of these values are special, or secret, or obscure. They come from looking at a human being the right way up, with mind giving order to the body, the higher directing the lower.

Being crammed into the subway train isn’t even the problem. Making something of myself, by building the habit of conscience, is the solution. 

Written in 7/2009

Ecclesiastes 9:13-18

[13] I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me.
[14] There was a little city with few men in it; and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it.
[15] But there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man.
[16] But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heeded.
[17] The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools.
[18] Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good. 

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 11.36

No man can rob us of our free will.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 11.36 (tr Long)

“Yes, but they can rob me of everything else! What use is my free will, if I can’t eat, or clothe myself, or have a place to live? If no one loves me, if I am in pain, what is the point? What’s the purpose in choosing, if I have nothing good to choose?”

Referencing Epictetus here once again, Marcus Aurelius does me a great favor. He reminds me of what a spoiled brat I am. As the wife likes to say: “First World problems!”

Notice the premise behind all of my whining. I think I have nothing, because nothing comes to me that I might prefer. I completely overlook the fact that my value as a person has nothing at all to do with that, and everything to do with my own virtue.

“Idiot! How can you have virtue when you’re alone, or poor, or homeless, or sick, or even dead?”

Quite readily, as the obstacles give me so many more chances to live well. All circumstances are an opportunity to do something right, and to find peace in it. Dying? Well, that will happen in any event; how about those bits that happen to go on before the actual dying?

Change the attitude, and I change the measure. I will no longer want what I do not need, and I will no longer fear losing what cannot be taken from me.

“What good is your freedom then, when you have nothing else?”

No, I still have everything, everything that is really mine, the only thing I ever really had. Even then, it was just lent to me for a moment by Providence. Let me use it well while I have power over it, for whatever time is given to me.

“They can still break your body, and then they will take your will as well!”

No, they can just break my body. When the will can no longer act, then my own life is not present. That is no longer a “me” at all. That is a husk, a discarded shell.

“Please yourself. I refuse to live in chains.”

As do I. We only differ on which chains actually matter the most. You worry more about the ones other people place on your hands, and I worry more about the ones I place on my own judgment.

Written in 7/2009