My project today was to finally do my state income taxes. Now I can relax. I never intend to leave them till the end, but I keep putting household things first. A dumb idea, in certain circumstances.
Our weather this week has suddenly turned warmer, and the clothes in my closet are not entirely suitable for temperatures in the sixties and seventies. This has got me scrambling. I am also thinking about what I'd like to sew next. I like this Nepheline blouse.
I was starting on the soup, sauteeing onion, etc., and I saw Leo outside, or maybe it was Leon - I have never seen them together, so am never sure. He was in the driveway; I tapped on the back door and he saw me. I went back to my cooking for a while, but Daisy somehow realized he was out there, and when I returned to the door, he was on the step.
He smelled the food, I'll bet. I put the chair there for Daisy to get a better view.
He didn't stay very long - I hope he went home to Dianne. Some of her cats are true wanderers, wanting to be outside all the time. I was just about to say it was a little excitement for Daisy, but she doesn't really need anything like that for stimulation; she is submerged in cat madness lately.
Can you guess what this is?
She started pulling down my bath towel the other day. She did it twice. But I have a solution.
I just need to unpin it before I get in the shower. I mean, to remember to unpin it.
The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis is very interesting. The author, Jason Baxter, quotes Lewis:
"In all previous ages that I can think of the principal aim of rulers, except at rare and short intervals, was to keep their subjects quiet, to forestall or extinguish widespread excitement and persuade people to attend quietly to their several occupations. And on the whole their subjects agreed with them. They even prayed (in words that sound curiously old-fashioned) to be able to live "a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty" and "pass their time in rest and quietness." But now the organization of mass excitement seems to be almost the normal organ of political power. We live in an age of "appeal", "drives", and "campaigns." Our rulers have become like schoolmasters and are always demanding "keenness." And you notice that I am guilty of a slight archaism in calling them "rulers." "Leaders" is the modern word. I have suggested elsewhere that this is a deeply significant change of vocabulary. Our demand upon them has changed no less than theirs on us. For of a ruler one asks justice, incorruption, diligence, perhaps clemency; of a leader, dash, initiative, and (I suppose) what people call "magnetism" or "personality."
The quote is extremely interesting and has certainly made me ponder. It also surprises me to think that this quote applies to us today just as much as (or perhaps even more so than) it did to Lewis, whenever he wrote it. I know he died in the very early 60's. One gets the feeling from his words (or is it just me?! It probably is just me :D) that he thinks we are so overwhelmed by the drive and eagerness of our leaders that we are not quite aware of the un-godliness and dishonesty going on. We are being hoodwinked, in other words. And the leaders are so busy and exhausted thinking up new campaigns that they have become puppets or ineffectual or both.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's why I posted it, because it really describes the way it is now! This piece is from his inaugural address at Cambridge, after he left Oxford. He began at Cambridge in 1954. Aside from some out-of-fashion words: "campaign", "keenness", "magnetism" (I think we'd choose different words today), he is describing our society.
DeleteThe book is talking about how the medieval mind saw the world, universe, the cosmos, nature, and that he also saw the world that way. Or, he understood it, and thought it was the better and more real way of viewing creation. The Enlightenment and the rise of science has supplanted that way of thinking. But, the rulers used to want to let the common folk be at liberty to do what they had to do, and had no interest in telling them what to think. Of course, there were unsettled times in which the men were forced to leave home and livelihood and fight. Otherwise, a peaceful life was valued. Now, there is little peace, and little time for it.
As to your comment that we aren't aware of the dishonesty of the leaders - yes! In my acquaintance, there are some who are more and more aware, because the proof is out there, if you take the time to look for it. But there are many more who seem to think that if you ignore a thing, it will eventually go away, or the pendulum will swing back. In my opinion, this is never true, although it may seem to be. If things are going in a bad direction, it may seem to get better at some point, but if the root isn't addressed, another related issue will just surface somewhere else.
Yes! That is very true. I only have to look at our government to see what a dreadful shambolic mess we have made of our "leadership"! We have had no actual leadership from our government for years just stupid in-fighting and childish squabbling.
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