“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But I repeat myself.”
–Mark Twain
Suppose the Democrats started to effectively engage the Bush White House on the abuse, incompetence, and deception of the past seven years.
But then I’d just be dreaming.
“Irreverence is the champion of liberty and its only sure defense”
-Mark Twain
Any power, belief, idea, or proclamation can only prove its worth through contempt and, if worthwhile and right, redemption.
It is by trial that our characters, and our ideas, or forged.
“The easy confidence with which I know another man’s religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also. I would not interfere with any one’s religion, either to strengthen it or to weaken it. I am not able to believe one’s religion can affect his hereafter one way or the other, no matter what that religion may be. But it may easily be a great comfort to him in this life–hence it is a valuable possession to him.”
I am certain that your particular religion must be folly, for I fear mine may be as well. And I also fear anyone that denies this is so.
“I don’t care much for gratitude of the noisy, boisterous kind. Why, when some men discharge an obligation, you can hear the report for miles around.”
-Mark Twain
Quiet grace is the source of true gratitude.
“We have a bastard Patriotism, a sarcasm, a burlesque; but we have no such thing as a public conscience. Politically we are just a joke.”
We get the leaders we deserve, we rally around them and question the patriotism of anyone with the moral courage to point out that the emperor has no clothes.
This is not patriotism, and far worse avowed disloyalty, for it calls itself something for which it is not.
Did I mention that we get the leaders we deserve?
“There’s a good spot tucked away somewhere in everybody. You’ll be a long time finding it sometimes.”
-Mark Twain, Refuge of the Derelicts
If there is good in every last soul, there are times that it remains hidden, waiting for the faint chance of making an appearance.
Not in all cases, but in some.
“Yes, even I am dishonest. Not in many ways, but in some. Forty-one, I think it is.”
-Mark Twain, 1905
Self-knowledge is the key to addressing our faults. A good sesne of humor helps.
“The weakest of all weak things is a virtue that has not been tested in the fire.”
-Mark Twain, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
Virtue is mere talk until it is tested by circumstance and displayed in action.
“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heal that has crushed it.”
-Mark Twain
True forgiveness only happens as a consequence of pain. If we are not inflicted with pain, or shown injustice, or injured in some way, what is there to forgive?
We are made better through the trials of life and forgiving the pain it inflicts.
“Your road is everything that a road ought to be . . . and yet you will not stay in it half a mile, for the reason that little, seductive, mysterious roads are always branching out from it on either hand, and as these curve sharply also and hide what is beyond, you cannot resist the temptation to desert your own chosen road and explore them.”
-Mark Twain, Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion
In a world of too many choices, most of which call seductively at first only to then lead nowhere, it becomes our task to find boldness and adventure along the path chosen and not forever to chase after phantoms and speculation.
An unfocused mind flits off the mere scent of an idea. A focused one sees nothing but that one idea, and pursues it in spite of the siren call of endless distraction; there is a purpose of thought and the courage to pursue it.