Aging Capriciously

I started this blog two weeks ago and became sidetracked what with Trumps possible impeachment and all.  Alas, my dreams did not come true.

In Part 1, I listed my four favorite fiction writers and my four favorite non-fiction writers with an explanation of how and why I picked each of them.  In Part 2, I am going to list my four favorite writings.  I will finish in Part 3 with my 4 favorite ideas.

For those of you who missed Part 1, this was my introduction.

This week I am doing what I call my four best of everything.  Everything that matters to me anyway.  Perhaps I should say it is my four favorites of everything I admire in the literary world because best is such a qualitative term.  There may be little difference between the word favorite and the word best, however, using the term best is more provocative and usually ends up in arguments or debates.  Since I do not want to be judgmental, I will use the term favorites in the text of this blog.

I am sure that each of you reading this will have some ideas concerning your favorites in these areas.  I invite you to put your ideas or thoughts concerning your favorites in my comment sections.  The more ideas you have the better.  Don’t be shy.  Use any language you want to share your ideas with the rest of the world.  Let us know what you like and why you like it.  Plenty of room in the blogosphere.

My Four Favorite Writings:

Ecclesiastes: 

Was the author of this bible book being a nihilist, a skeptic or an idealist?  I think it will depend on your own interpretation.  For me, the message of this book is summed up in four words “Vanity, all is vanity.”  We are driven by vanity and ego.  Our society relishes fame, fortune and power.  Those who have them, guard them jealously.  Those who don’t will fight and die for them.  And what are the results of this obsession?

Famous people hide from those that made them famous because they can no longer live a public life.  In many cases, they are hunted by nutcases who believe that they can be famous by an association with the famous no matter what kind of a bizarre twist it might involve.  The death of John Lennon comes to my mind as I write these words.  Often fame itself is fleeting and the aftermath can be a feeling of abandonment, loneliness and worthlessness.  Witness the number of famous people who take their own lives.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  The quest for power destroys the soul of the power holder.  Power becomes an end in itself rather than a means to obtain some good.  We can see this problem when we look at the US Congress.  The power that these congressmen hold is all too often corrupted by their desire to hold on to this power regardless of the moral and ethical conundrums such desire involves.

Fortune hunters think that they can achieve happiness by becoming millionaires or billionaires.  Many see wealth as a pathway to freedom without realizing the chains that wealth forges for them.  The following refrain that Porgy sings in Porky and Bess sums this up very well:

De folks wid plenty o’ plenty

Got a lock an dey door

‘Fraid somebody’s a-goin’ to rob ’em

While dey’s out a-makin’ more

What for?

Porgy had the sun and the moon and the deep blue sea and that was plenty of nuttin for Porgy.  Porgy exemplified the wisdom that is at the core of Ecclesiastes.

Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream Speech”:

The only other speech that comes close to this one is Dr. King’s famous Eulogy speech.  The passion, cadence, rhyming, metaphors and ideology embodied in his “I have a Dream Speech” is matched by no other that I can think of.  Even more remarkable is that a large portion of this speech was impromptu.  Dr. King did not write all of this speech before he gave it.  Someone mentioned that he should tell them about his dream and he then went into the most memorable part of his speech.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Dr. King goes on to describe many more parts of his dream.  Each one is spellbinding in that they speak to the possibilities that one day racism may no longer darken the doorsteps of American life.  I never get tired of hearing this speech because it embodies the hope that we can all live together some day as brothers and sisters and not race haters.

Jesus’s “Sermon on the Mount”:

Jesus was a revolutionary and a radical.  He died for his beliefs that righteousness and justice and mercy and peace should not be tied to status and power.  In each of the eight beatitudes that he gave on the mount is the idea that you cannot buy your way into heaven.  We will be judged on the mercy and compassion that we show to others and not on how big our house is or how many diplomas we have.  I often wonder why some Christians are so determined to plant the 10 Commandments on public lawns, but I have yet to find one that wants to plant even one of the following eight beatitudes:

• Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
• Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
• Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
• Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
• Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
• Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
• Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
• Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s “In a Grove”:        

This story was the basis for the film Rashomon by the great Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa.  It demonstrates what is perhaps one of the most important and often most ignored of all psychological concepts.  What we have increasingly realized is that different people see things very differently.  The idea that absolute facts exist beyond the minds of human beings is put into question by what has been called the Rashomon Effect.  Seeing is not always believing and sometimes believing is seeing.

The validity and reliability of eyewitnesses is an example of the “Rashomon Effect.”  Clarence Darrow knew how unreliable eyewitnesses were and even said “There is nothing as unreliable as an eyewitness.”  In this story, a tale of rape and murder unfolds.  A perpetrator is captured and put on trial.  Each “eyewitness” tells a very different story in terms of what happened.  This is significant to the fate of the defendant since the difference between murder and self-defense is acquittal and the same judgment will apply to the difference between consensual sex and rape.

Death row has been populated with about 1 in 25 people who were judged guilty on the basis of an eyewitness or some “indisputable” piece of evidence that turned out not to be so indisputable.  (A study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences determined that at least 4% of people on death row were and are likely innocent.)  Since 1973, more than 165 people who had been wrongly convicted and sentenced have been exonerated. The next time you think you have the facts or are quite certain of something because of what you heard or saw, you should think twice.

I hope you have enjoyed or at least found my list of favorite writings interesting.  I will follow up with Part 3 which will deal with my four favorite “Ideas.”  Until then, try singing the following song when you are feeling down or unhappy and substitute your “favorite things.”

“My Favorite Things” by Rodgers and Hammerstein

Raindrops on roses

And whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens

Brown paper packages tied up with strings

These are a few of my favorite things

Cream-colored ponies and crisp apple strudels

Doorbells and sleigh bells

And schnitzel with noodles

Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings

These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes

Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes

Silver-white winters that melt into springs

These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites

When the bee stings

When I’m feeling sad

I simply remember my favorite things

And then I don’t feel so bad.