January 8, 2019
Dearest Readers,
Good morning friends. What coffee do you enjoy while reading this feature? We’ve long enjoyed a mellow breakfast blend for morning routine though it should be noted we keep rather odd hours and, as likely as not, morning routine happens in the late afternoon.
Whatever you enjoy, even if it’s tea, we’re grateful you’re reading this.
MORNING BRIEFING
Here are some things you may find interesting to know:
Almanac
In 1297 – The Grimaldi Family is established as rulers of Monaco, a position they still hold, when Francois Grimaldi, disguised as a monk, knocks on the door of the fortress on the Rock of Monaco. Francois could not be bothered to reproduce and his reign was later taken over by a cousin.
In 1790 – President George Washington delivers the first State of the Union message in New York City. At 1,089 words, it remains the shortest State of the Union speech ever. Washington had taken office on April 30, 1789.
Your Hit Parade
#1 songs on this date in 1983:
Hot 100 – Maneater…Hall and Oates (4th and final week)
Soul Chart – Sexual Healing…Marvin Gaye (10th and final week)
Country Chart – Can’t Even Get The Blues…Reba McEntire (1st and only week)
Album Chart – Business as Usual…Men at Work (9th of 15 weeks)
– Chart data courtesy of Billboard.
Numbers Racket
10,612: the continuous number of days the US has been at war.
$21.920: the number of dollars, in trillions, of America’s national debt. – Source: usdebtclock.org
666: days until 2020 election.
Philosophy 101
Corruption was in the mores of the times and in the nature of man. – Will Durant, The Story of Civilization: The Reformation
Some things are universal, and some of us humans being corruptible has been true since time immemorial. Corruption, like every other obstacle to our path, is something we must fight every day.
Now, for our purposes, corruption doesn’t necessarily mean taking bribes or running a numbers racket. It means anything that distracts us from making our time serve us. It could be anything: the snow needs to be shoveled, the kids taken to practice, that show you’ve DVR’d is demanding attention.
We must attend to our self-cultivation, to our path, to the life we were meant to live every day. Not some days and not others, not some weeks and not others. Every day. Till we die. This is the only way to insure we will live the life we were meant to live.
Missing one day on our path is hard, but after that it gets progressively easier and before anyone knows anything we have squandered months, years and even decades off our path, living a life we were not meant to live, life’s great tragedy. Being on our path every day sounds daunting at first, and perhaps it is, but after a while it becomes second nature and we do it as a matter of course. All we need is the wisdom to know the life we were meant to live, the courage to go and live and the patience to see our path through to the very end. When we have those three things, the life we were meant to live will present itself every day.
Have a good day, and many thanks for reading.
Kaitlyn