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Ongoing Thoughts 16:
By William E. Steinman:
The Joys of Living:
Omar Khayyám wrote this.
"A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and
Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness—
Oh, Wilderness were
That man knew a good thing when he had it. Recent scientific
news shows that red wine slows the aging process. Scientists have identified
the magic ingredient as resveratrol. Once again, I am
vindicated. I always knew red wine was good for me, but I did not know
resveratrol was one of the reasons. The problem now is scientists cannot leave
a good thing alone. Some of them intend to extract resveratrol and put it I a
pill. That way, no one would actually have to drink red wine. Yuck and
pooh-pooh too! What is wrong with those people?
Mrs. Gaffer and I have a bottle of red wine with dinner
every evening. Why in the world would we want to pop a pill instead? Those guys are nuts. In their zeal, they are refusing to notice
the other health benefits of vino. It soothes the mind and heals the soul. It
is a simple pleasure we can share with another human. Here again, this is a
reinforcement of the idea that social activity is good for us. The most healing
thing about red wine is the pleasure of enjoying it with someone else. It is
poetry in liquid form. Omar Khayyám got it right. So did Mark Twain.
“Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full
value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.”
Do-gooders are not the only nuts who strive to take the joy
out of life. Well-meaning scientists are prone to the disease. The worst part
about too many of these types is they do things without thought or conscience.
They just do it because they can. I do not know how many times I have hear the
word “neat or neato” from one of these people. They use neato when
they are really impressed with their own cleverness. Creating a reason for not having a glass of wine is not neato,
it is dumbo!
I suppose they will next tell us it is not necessary to read
poetry. They will have some kind of hypnotic technique for impressing poetry
directly onto the memory. That way we will not go through the chore of reading
it. Imagine not reading Frost or Poe because you don’t
have too. We already have enough ignorant people who think that way. It is
usually the result of incompetent schoolteachers, who presented poetry and
literature in general as chores. You must read it and analyze it don’t you know. Perhaps you must even memorize it. It
will be part of a test, Bah, humbug! Robert Frost said it better than I can.
“Poetry is what is lost in translation.”
When we force kids to memorize, translate, and analyze
literature we take the beauty out of it. You will not get anything good from
Shakespeare, Steinbeck, or Hemingway by trying to memorize their work. You must
read it and feel it to get the joy of it. You must see the subtle nuances of
the prose and poetry by identifying with it, not by memorizing it. That is the
secret. That is how Shakespearean actors become great. They identify with the
play and the role. Then they remember it naturally and deliver it with perfect
style and timing. When is the last time you saw Shakespeare done in the round?
Do you think those folks sat down and memorized the lines as a chore? It is
clear that they love the work.
I believe there are two conflicting forces in our culture,
which act on us constantly. One is the tendency to hedonism wherein we tend to
carry good things to extremes. That is how we get hangovers in our heads and
overhangs on our bellies. Excepting Pat Robertson, I think we all suffer from
some form of this hedonistic behavior. There is no need to belabor the truth
here. We all know how pure and noble Pat is.
The other force is this childish do-gooder notion that life
is serious and is not to be enjoyed at all. That is
the Calvinist concept that underlies the do-gooder’s relentless attacks
on us. The idea that they do it because they want us to do what is good for us
is transparent at best. It is a shallow lie. They just hate it when someone
else is enjoying themselves. Why else would they go to
such extremes? Take trans-fats for example. The idea that they investigate and
tell us trans-fats are not very healthy seems like a good public service. What
gives the lie to it is their concerted effort to make using these oils a crime.
Most recently,
Everywhere we go these do-gooder fools are taking away our
options. They are taking away our rights and taking the joy out of life. I am fed up with their boorish behavior. I want to maximize my
options, I want to maximize the joy of living. The
older I get, the more I want to suck every last drop
from the process of growing and learning. I deeply resent the do-gooders and
their interference in what should be my own choice. I have much to learn and no
time to suffer these fools. As Frost said:
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
The thing to notice is that poets and other artists
understand about the joy of living. Do-gooders do not, so do-gooders be damned.
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