Celebrating the 12 days of Christmas
with short reflections on 12 gifts
People seem most eager to give us the gift of perspective right after life has given us something lousy, when things are going for fooey.
Nothing matters very much, and few things matter at all. Lord Balfour
Don’t take life so serious, son. It ain’t nohow permanent. Pogo
Less common is the counsel of perspective in both good times and bad:
This too shall pass. Various folkloric attributions
Nothing is all good or all bad. The Big Guy
Perspective offered up by other people is ‘more socks than chocolate’: valued more in the giving than the receiving. Go figure. May we find ways, then, to gift ourselves.
Ah, yes, Pogo…. How come it was the right-wing cartoonists like Walt Kelly and Al Capp who managed to create such endearing and insightful comic strips? If the left wing fails, it’s probably because they keep turning out prose as turgid as Das Kapital.
Jim
Jim – Well, it likely isn’t entirely fair to compare a cartoonist to a (slightly whacko) philosopher for entertainment value. Doonesbury can be quite funny. Not as sure about endearing….