This morning, Braden at Langley Outdoors Academy comments on a very interesting interview of Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson. In it, the star proclaims that in the interests of not further exciting division among those who pay attention to him, henceforth he’ll keep his politics to himself. It was an exceptional display of humility for …
Category: humility
Jul 23 2023
Mysteries
As an adherent to a “mystery religion,” I am frequently challenged – sometimes by others; sometimes by my own restless intellect – to explain particular assertions of my faith, to make them comprehensible. There’s an obvious contradiction in this, which I’m sure any Gentle Reader will see at once. Religious mysteries aren’t on the …
May 07 2023
Human Institutions
They’re imperfect – all of them. Every now and then, a reminder is useful. The Acts of the Apostles contains a pair of segments that make many things plain – indeed, plainer in some ways than the Church would like us to know. The first of them is in Chapter 2: And …
May 05 2023
A Brief Announcement
Someone who gave the name of “Mike Bizzaro,” along with a strange-looking email address, just wrote to inform me that “[my] soul has been removed from Christianity.” He also provided a link to one of the ugliest web pages I’ve had the dubious pleasure of visiting. It is extremely important that anyone who agrees …
Mar 20 2023
The First Day Of Spring 2023
Good morning, Gentle Reader. It’s been an interesting week already, yet it’s only Monday. I’m in a “bar the doors and clean all the guns” sort of mood, but to keep things peppy around here (and to avoid involuntary commitment) I think I’ll muse over a graphic I snagged just yesterday. As is so …
Dec 31 2022
Refunds
Long, long ago, though in this galaxy, I had as a friend a bright and enterprising fellow who enjoyed science fiction as much as did (and do) I. We parted company upon graduating high school and went our separate ways: I into the hard sciences, he into other sorts of studies and undertakings. Time …
Oct 19 2022
A Rueful Thought
“A man’s got to know his limitations.” – Magnum Force I’ve often ranted about one or another of the virtues, with emphasis laid on the nature of true charity and the importance of humility. However, I don’t want my Gentle Readers to think I consider myself a paragon of those virtues. It’s just …
Aug 29 2022
A Strong Sense Of Confidence?
We know – those of us who’ve been around, at least – that that’s always an invitation to a visit from the Flying Purple Shaft: Governor Kathy Hochul is taking a page out of Charlie Crist’s book and alienating voters. Yesterday Hochul, who is running for reelection against GOP pick Lee Zeldin, told …
Jul 24 2022
The Ever-Trendy Faith
Gerard van der Leun has a typically excellent essay up today. It’s so good that I almost feel as if I’m committing an offense against the proprieties by pull-quoting it, but…well…maybe the authorities will look the other way: Back in 2006 National Geographic and other media echo chambers thought enough of this “discovery” …
Jan 28 2022
Humility And Confidence
Do those two qualities sound mutually exclusive to you? They’re not, though quite a lot of people think they are. In fact, they complement one another to an extent that only experience can adequately illuminate. No, no political blather today. This is more important. *** I’d bet that most of my Gentle …
Aug 25 2021
The Corpse Walk
An old metaphor for an attitude of gleeful, even vindictive opportunism is “he’d walk over his colleagues’ corpses.” I’ve used it rather frequently in recent years. There are a lot of conscience-challenged opportunists in the world. They make their presence known when disaster befalls others. I’ve seen a lot of corpse-walking lately, especially …
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