Gerard is back, literally from the dead, and that’s a very good thing for all of us who rely on his blog to help lift the fog.
Patience: if you don’t build it will it still come?
He has penned a piece on patience that, whether you’ve ever suffered a cardiac infarction or not, may be beneficial. Especially if you are not by nature patient:
I am not a patient man. In counting from one to ten I tend to skip five, six, and seven… The only time that patience seems to be my strong point is when it comes to elective pain. In that case, procrastination is my destination.
The American Digest proprietor recently suffered a heart attack: a “near death” experience if you will. In the “coming back” stage he’s discovered that his mortality, while tangible, is still negotiably fungible. One of the terms of negotiation of course is patience: a virtue he confesses to being rather unfamiliar with. What Type A out there cannot relate?
If you have the patience, or are willing to begin cultivating it, you’ll find it worthy of a Monday contemplation. Many of his loyal readers have commented, but by far my favorite is from Rick Locke who, in the course of supporting the concept of patience, explains the bifurcated personality of the optimistically pessimistic: (emphasis added by your resident optimistic pessimist)
What you have to do is give over optimism, at least the sort of bumptious, forceful optimism that demands that the next thing be better. That's how the OWS kiddies got where they are. No matter how well things turn out there's always something not quite perfect, so they get disappointed and either bitter or furious, depending on personality. The true pessimist, on the other hand, goes through life with a spring in his step and a smile on his face; nothing happens that's worse than expected, and all his surprises are happy ones.
The only quibble I would have is that what he refers to as pessimism is embraced by many of us addicted to critical thinking as “realism”.
Realists: the only ones who will tell you when you have a glass full of piss
So there it is, OWIES of America. I’m telling you this for your own good: don’t drink the Kool-Aid. It pays to wait patiently for something a bit more palatable.
Between Obama and a ham sandwich, take the ham sandwich. And give 100 points.
Anybody But Obama 2012
Wait for it.
Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, Thanks
