Good morning, Gentle Reader. Welcome to a bright new Monday. I’m sure it will be filled with all the things that have made Mondays beloved throughout the world. And now that we’re past that blasphemy, what do you think of the title?
In truth, I never disliked Mondays. But that’s because I enjoyed my work. Many people can’t say that. For them, work is something to be minimized, something to get away from as early and for as long as possible. Yea verily, even today, when you can make a living from commenting at X/Twitter.
But that’s a depressing subject, and not germane to what’s on my mind just now. So let’s have three centered asterisks and proceed thence to the main event.
There are innumerable bits of pseudo-wisdom in circulation these days. Most of them are pitched in short, punchy phrases. That makes them easy to remember. It also makes them context-free, and therefore easy to refute.
But in truth, a lot of those bits of pseudo-wisdom can be handy. Given the appropriate circumstances, a bland saying that encapsulates a common sentiment can be enough to pull you off the mat and get you back into the fight. Try this one: “As long as you have your health…”
For a man who’s down on his luck, who’s suffered reverses and disappointments that have drained him of zeal, that can actually be good over-the-counter soul medicine. “Hey! You’re young and healthy. You’ve got will and skills. Stop moping and get back in there!” That can do the trick for some. But I wouldn’t prescribe it for a soldier under siege who’s low on ammo and at imminent risk of being overrun. “Hey, as long as you have your health…” -- ? Naah.
How about this hoary old saying: “Practice makes perfect.” Does it? Suppose you’re practicing the wrong thing? A piano student has to practice his fingerings, but he has to practice the right ones, and practice them correctly. More, once he switches from the piano to a stringed instrument, those well-practiced fingerings become useless at best. Context is everything there.
Or try this one: “As long as you’re happy.”
Is there anything more fleeting than happiness, or more elusive? Can we even pin it down and stop its squirming long enough to say exactly what it is? Even Aristotle couldn’t do it. All he could say on the subject is that Happiness is what we seek as an end in itself and for no other reason.
I’d bet that most people aren’t even aware of when they’re happy. When it’s upon them, that’s that. They don’t have a consciousness of happiness as a specific state of mind. Rather, they have a consciousness of unhappiness, whether from pain, or failure, or frustration, or what have you. They know that state of being as a specific one, regardless of the reason for it.
I forget where I encountered it, but in some work of fiction the viewpoint character observes to himself that No maxim is meaningful without qualification. Nostrums require context to be judged useful or useless. Otherwise they just hang there, suggesting something that can be constructive in the right circumstances, but useless in others and destructive in still others.
Realizations of this sort have helped me to kill an old, pernicious habit: giving advice. I’ve become too conscious of the limits of my knowledge, especially my knowledge of other people’s lives and circumstances. Others’ lives are quite as complex as my own, and sometimes far more so, and I will never, ever know them to any great depth. So these days I sympathize and shut up.
Just an early-Monday-morning thought from an old man who’s tired of commenting on politics and has nothing fresh to say about fiction. And there it is again! Monday, the tormentor that never relents! Will we never be rid of it?
Back later or tomorrow, I hope. After this Monday crap is over, anyway.
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