Category: philosophy

When thinking about the year to come I started musing on my favorite poem. This is not the lateral leap it may seem as I’m afraid due to my increasing banality 🙂 it’s The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. In particular the last few lines of the 3rd verse

Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

So I guess my message for 2008 is to take it as it comes, a cascade of new possibilities. Don’t get mired in trying to achieve the targets of 2007. Many will forensically analyse the past year, considering minutae like targets for physical fitness, weight, finances, love etc. A pot-pourri of concerns. Don’t be afraid to dump all these and just get on with life.

If you’re going to learn anything, learn to question everything.

People in this world look at things mistakenly, and think that what they do not understand must be the void. This is not the true void. It is bewilderment. – Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings

Today I’ve a quote from one of my favorite public figures of the late 20th Century and the greatest president that the US almost had. Robert F Kennedy. I hugely admire him for his contribution to civil rights, his considered approach to political decisions and how he overcame a background of immense priviledge to become, at the time of his death, the most popular political figure in America and a true champion of the poor and disenfranchised. He wasn’t perfect but he radiated decency and hope. The qualities we look for in our leaders and would hope to find in ourselves…

“Laws can embody standards; governments can enforce laws–but the final task is not a task for government. It is a task for each and every one of us. Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted–when we tolerate what we know to be wrong–when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy, or too frightened–when we fail to speak up and speak out–we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice.” – Robert F Kennedy

Here’s another one on Bobby’s favourite theme, moral courage.

“Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it.” From his last speech after winning the California state primary on June 6th 1968.