Not having done my daily inventory for about a week, I feel inexplicably obligated to report some news items that I would normally have published in that column.
First, I finished reading The Sources of Christian Ethics. To those who are sick of me drooling all over its magnificent wisdom, you may sigh in relief. I won’t comment on it again for some time. Except to say that it’s got me re-starting my ebook from scratch.
On the other hand, I haven’t quite decided what virtue book I’ll read next. I have unintentionally fallen into the habit of reading only one book at a time, and I’m rather enjoying the increased retention and the speed of getting through a given text that come from such a focus. I think probably Plato’s Republic will be next. But before I dive headlong into that, I’m skimming over Jared Diamond’s Collapse.
Diamond is better known for Guns, Germs, and Steel. He’s a geographer by profession, but he writes in the personal confessional style that has become so popular these days. Anyway, Collapse focuses on the environmental causes of societal failure. I’m rather pessimistic about the institutional future of the U.S. and of so-called Western Culture and the Global Economy, so I’m curious to see what he has to say about it all.
Anyway, I’m open to suggestions for my next reading. Any topics of burning interest you want me to write about?
Second, I’ve resolved my casino concerns. I won’t be going to dealer school and I won’t be putting myself through unnecessary moral ambiguity.
The comments on the blog came out in favor of dealing, but the fact is every argument in favor finally showed itself as an excuse hiding behind the mask of practicality. My main motivations were fear and impatience, not really a desire to deal or a sense of calling.
The two moments which sealed my decision were:
- When I spoke to the instructors at the dealer school, and they told me that there was no option to “cut someone off” from further gambling, as a bartender might cut someone off from further drinking if that person was intoxicated
- When I floated the idea for my mother and she gasped, then managed to ask, “Why would you want to do something like that?” I’m firmly of the school that one of a son’s main duties is to avoid making his mother cry
But the fact is that I’m financially able to keep plugging away at the job search for at least another three or four months, and there are plenty of good prospects out there.
Even so, my dream is to make a living as a writer. And I’m frustrated at how much time and energy that I could spend on writing is going into job hunting. So, I’m resisting also the temptation to snuggle into a corner of comfortable dependence on family and be an artiste. I only need to sell that first bestseller, and I’ll have it made, right?
Or, I could actually do the work of being productive in ways other than those dictated by daydreams. While working to make my dreams – day and otherwise – come true. So I’m a wee tad bit torn.
Third, as if I didn’t have enough plates spinning, I’m thinking of adding a kind of series to the blog. Tentative title: “Letters to our Leaders.” Here’s my reasoning: the most direct political influence I can have, apart from actually running for office, is to engage my elected officials in conversation. I can inform them of my concerns, of my hopes for government, and I can describe my reasons for thinking as I do. Maybe, if they write back, I can gain insight into their reasons and concerns.
Meanwhile, if I publish my letters on this blog, other people can use my letters as models for their own, or can tell me why they disagree, or even write other letters that argue against my letters.
I’m motivated pretty strongly by the current health care legislative tornado, but I’m thinking that it’s important to build up a consistent repartee with elected officials, and to address local problems as well as national and/or international issues.
What think you? Would you be interested in reading and/or discussing this sort of thing? Would you find it useful? Do you think I’m just hopelessly naive?
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