Tag Archives: pride

Who’s Who and What’s What

For many years, my father’s name
Followed Rich Little’s in the book
“Who’s Who in America”; and
There were times I wondered aloud
Whether it might have been better
To be a different man’s son.

Only a few lines of blank space
Seemed to separate these two men
In their listings – in many ways
So much alike, and there in print
Their record of accomplishments
Took up equal lengths of the page.

But my dad did no impressions;
Although truth be told he left some.
In the end, though, I’ve found it best
To follow the second man’s way,
Even if for a while it seemed
The harder path, the tougher row,
Leaving a much more private mark.

Because at some point in this life
I learned the cost of mimicking:
Even the most valued tracing
Pales next to an original.

23 AUG 2003

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Today’s Potent Quote …

The difference between the mortified, but still proud and self-centered stoic and the unmortified hedonist consists in this: the latter, being flabby, shiftless and at heart rather ashamed of himself, lacks the energy and the motive to do much harm except to his own body, mind and spirit; the former, because he has all the secondary virtues and looks down on those who are not like himself, is morally equipped to wish and to be able to do harm on the very largest scale and with a perfectly untroubled conscience. These are obvious facts; and yet, in the current religious jargon of our day the word “immoral” is reserved almost exclusively for the carnally self-indulgent. The covetous and the ambitious, the respectable toughs and those who cloak their lust for power and place under the right sort of idealistic cant, are not merely unblamed; they are even held up as models of virtue and godliness. The representatives of the organized churches begin by putting haloes on the heads of the people who do most to make wars and revolutions, then go on, rather plaintively, to wonder why the world should be in such a mess.
— Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy

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