Stuff 2 Know
July 18 2019
Notes from around our human experience, including Philosophy 101, On This Date and an excerpt from one of my books.
PHILOSOPHY 101
…his life seemed to prove that the valorous were the favorites of fortune. He was simply inviting the [Constitutional] Convention to do what he had done repeatedly – to aim as high as possible and to strain every nerve to attain the goal.
John C Miller
Alexander Hamilton: Profile in Paradox
Alexander Hamilton, a certified Founding Father and the first Secretary of the Treasury, was a man who was not afraid to aim high. Hamilton had a definite and certain vision for the government of the United States (not to mention a vision for his social and political status) a vision so bold and audacious – a word that comes up from time to time with Hamilton – it drew the opposition of other great thinkers of the day, like Thomas Jefferson.
We should be aiming high, too, and this is easier than it may sound. Merely dispensing with the cacophony of outside influences and following our inner calling is sufficient. All of us – you, me, your aunt in Leadville – have things we were meant to do with our lives and the happiest lives are spent by those who do them. These things could cause us to live down the ages or merely be fondly remembered by those whose lives we touched, but this is of no consequence. A life spent on our path is all we need in this life.
All we need is the wisdom to know what we are about, the courage to go where our hearts tell us and the patience to see it through to the very end. When we do that, we withdraw every possible benefit from our lives because our paths take us exactly where we are meant to go.
John C Miller is an American writer.
Running The Numbers
Our national debt as I write this is $22.508 trillion. and America has been at war for 10,804 consecutive days.
Great Moments In Getting Along
Jews are expelled from England on this date in 1290, when King Edward I issues the Edict of Expulsion. The Edict was actually the culmination of two centuries of persecution of Jews because the English couldn’t get along with any better than anyone else. Jews would not be allowed to return to England until 1657, in no small part because England needed their money.
Whoops…My Bad
United States Senator Ted Kennedy crashes his car into a tidal basin at Chappaquiddick Island, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne on this date in 1969. Kennedy immediately left the scene and did not report the accident for ten hours, just before Kopechne’s body was found. Kennedy received a two-month suspended sentence for leaving the scene of an accident. The incident damaged Kennedy to the extent he was never able to run for president, though it did not prevent continued reelection to the Senate.
CHARTWATCH
#1 songs on this date in 1970:
Hot 100 – Mama Told Me (Not To Come)…Three Dog Night (2nd of two consecutive weeks)
Soul Chart – The Love You Save…The Jackson 5 (5th of six weeks)
Country Chart – He Loves Me All The Way…Tammy Wynette (3rd and final week)
UK Singles Chart – In The Summertime…Mungo Jerry (6th of seven weeks)
Album Chart – Woodstock…Soundtrack (2nd of four weeks)
– Chart data courtesy of Billboard (US) and Official Charts Company (UK).
TODAY’S KAITLYN BOOK EXCERPT
From my latest novel The Angel and The Captain
In today’s episode, Angel is making dinner for her husband and father for the first time.
It’s tough to find words to describe dinner. I mean, what can you say about a moment you had no right to ever expect to happen and might never happen again? Making dinner for my husband and father was something I never even dared to dream of. Why bother? There was no point to it because it wasn’t ever going to happen.
But it did! There was the usual selection of restaurants cities have, but the Captain was fond of saying you must take advantage of the circumstances that present themselves and who the hell knew when this chance would come again?
It reminded me of the Captain telling me when I was old like he was I would probably want to be looking back on having seen my father than having not seen him. Well, when I was old like my Captain, heck, even on the drive home tomorrow, I knew I would rather be looking back on having made dinner for my father and husband than on having gone out for dinner.
After I cooked the Italian sausage, I got the water going for the pasta and the sauce simmering, then I sat down at the table and asked my father to tell me about the day he abandoned me and my mother.
I never knew. Mom never talked about the last day of her marriage and I never asked. And, frankly, I never had that burning of a desire to know. I was kind of curious, but I wasn’t losing any sleep at night wondering about it. I probably just wanted to make my father go through whatever it was it took to tell me about that last day.
Click here to read more from The Angel and The Captain.