By Moristotle[Originally published on January 6, 2011, with an additional reflection at the bottom.]
The episode of my new blog pic and its attendant quotations (from an old friend and from Henry James – another old friend of a sort) led to my realizing that I seem to have been taking myself a bit too seriously lately (and for who knows how long before that).
Horace Fletcher (1849-1919) was known as “The Great Masticator,” and according to something I read somewhere, Henry James followed his prescription to swallow thirty-times before swallowing. Seems to me that you should follow the same advice when reading my blog (or maybe any blog).
And, in the process, I may have hit on a third new year’s resolution, if resolving to take oneself less seriously isn’t a self-contradiction. (I’m not sure that it isn’t.)
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Additional reflection: I take myself sufficiently seriously to have to wonder whether I do so excessively. I’m ever reviewing my thoughts, surveying memories, questioning my motives, rating my “performance,” making comparisons, rationalizing justifications, making excuses, consoling myself that I really am prepared to accept death.
But, for those very reasons, I may be being distracted from an even more profitable question: Should I be taking myself more seriously? Do I maybe make too many jokes, spend too much time engaging in well-intentioned but frivolous conversation, choose compassionate acts that benefit fewer people (or other creatures) than more “strategic” acts might benefit...?
Should I resolve to worry more about this than I do?
| Copyright © 2018 by Moristotle |
How about my readers: Do you take yourself too seriously, or not seriously enough? Should you worry about this more than you might already do?
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