Teach me to care and not to care.
Harris: …and so that was when I knew I couldn’t be a Christian any longer.
Podcaster: You just have such an amazing, difficult story and you are so courageous for telling it. There’s so much brokenness in the world. And I know that I’m not exactly where you are, so I guess there’s sort of a… distance between us, maybe that’s the right word, but I deeply resonate with what you’ve said today. I think it’s so important stories like yours are amplified so we can all continue learning and growing.
A charismatic leader who does not confess his faults will attract many followers, but no successor.
My short story collection Blasphemers is half off this month on Amazon.
“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”
“In a war of ideas it is people who get killed.”
“He had a clear conscience. Never used it.”
“When smashing monuments, save the pedestals. They always come in handy.”
“An empty envelope that is sealed contains a secret.”
“Do not ask God the way to heaven; he will show you the hardest one.”
“Optimists and pessimists differ only on the date of the end of the world.”
“You can change your faith without changing gods, and vice versa.”
“Life forces people to do all kinds of voluntary actions.”
“Politics: a Trojan horse race.”
The latest episode of Proverbial is devoted to the teacher’s proverb, “Don’t smile until Christmas.” In the course of the show, I claim it is foolish to “want to be liked.” While reading a book of proverbs this evening, I came upon a saying I wished I’d had at my disposal a week ago: “To worship the people is to be worshipped,” Francis Bacon (1623).
“You have heard it said…”
Seven years ago, I briefly wrote AuRevoir1967, a Twitter account which summarized (in 140 characters) episodes of a fictional television show that was a bit like Absolutely Fabulous and a bit like a Destroyer record.
I’ve thought several times of resurrecting this thing, but never gone through with it.
“Not every teenager is good at being a teenager, just like not every adult is good at being an adult, not every newlywed is good at being a newlywed, and so forth. There are many stages of life, and you can be good or bad at any of them. Doing well as a teenager means spending a little time enjoying the stage you’re in, and a lot of time preparing for the next stage. Don’t get me wrong. It’s good to be a teenager. It is perfectly natural. Teenagers are as natural as oak trees, racoons, or the spring equinox. Your teenage years are not permanent, though. It is natural to be a teenager, but in a few years, nature will take away your teenage years. If you want to do well in the next stage of life—which is not college, but adulthood—you have to begin preparing now.”
-my latest for CiRCE is something you can feel free to use on your own, no attribution necessary
From a history class in the year 2500 A.D.
Teacher: One of the things men in the 21st century absolutely despised was attending meetings. No one liked meetings.
Student: I don’t know if I can believe that.
Teacher: Why?
Student: If everyone hated meetings, who was scheduling all the meetings?
Teacher: The same people that hated going to them.
Student: Why?
Teacher: (staring intensifies)
Student: Why?
Teacher: They were insane.
There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity.