 |
|
François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld,
Prince de Marcillac (1613 – 1680) |
July 1, 2014
Le Duc
Uncle
Albert writes:
Ah,
my favorite nephew,
The
weather continues unseasonable, inside and out; sometimes the house lags behind
the yard, and sometimes the yard runs behind the house. It rains outside but
not in; the sun shines inside but not out; the heat and the cold can’t decide.
I am not sure why La Rochefoucauld
continues to give such pleasure; but we should take our pleasures where we find
them. They are few enough, especially compared to our woes, when we add to the real
those we imagine. And, the pleasures are fewer as we get older.
v:42
Nous n’avons pas assez de force pour suivre
toute notre raison.
Roughly:
We’re not strong enough to follow
our reason without fail.
So,
I take it, we shouldn’t expect to. Moreover, we should not only make allowances
for our failures in reason, we should also consider what else we might follow:
intuition? sentiment? desire?
unreason?
Or, in any given situation, we might simply shrug:
“I’m not going to figure this out. So what?” Then, again, there are options:
walk away; slice through the knot (or find someone that can); blow a raspberry;
get drunk; hire a prostitute; both – get drunk and hire a prostitute; give into
our anxieties; weep uncontrollably; take a colonic.
It helps to have alternatives. And your choice in any given instance will not change history. Likely, it
won’t change your own course, if it
doesn’t lead you to fall into a pattern. Don’t fall into a pattern, my dear young friend.
Rather, another alternative before
you in every case: Be contradictory. Make sure you don’t fall, or haven’t
already fallen, into a pattern. Patterns are frightening, for two reasons. We’re
unaware of them. Or, we see them where they do not exist.
My
maunderings as always
not for your edification but amusement.
Your
poor dead mother’s ancient friend,
[signed]
Albert
Other posts starring Uncle A.:
No comments:
Post a Comment