LITTLE ROCK — It’s time to update the list of things
I should have learned by now. It
just keeps on growing. Among them: A man’s never learned as much as he thinks he has. He also may have learned the wrong things.
The truly wise are those capable of unlearning some things.
Don’t worry so much. Heck, don’t worry, period. Worrying is an attenuated form of atheism.
Do your best and then let Somebody Else handle it. “Step lightly; do not jar the inner harmonies.”- Satchel Paige.
Life is just full of surprises. To quote my favorite philosopher, Fats Waller: “One never knows, do one?”
Always take time to love. Love does not simply add to life; it transforms it. It changes everything.
It makes all things possible; without it, all things possible mean nothing.
Show good will. If it isn’t reciprocated, nothing is lost. If it is, what a surprise and delight.
Contrary to Machiavelli, it is better to be loved than feared, at least in personal relations. Nations are something else; they have interests, not friends.
Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative, and don’t mess with Mister In-Between. That sound advice comes from a sage named Johnny Mercer.
“Never give in. Never give in.
Never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty-never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense.Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.’’-Winston Churchill, speaking to the schoolboys at Harrow, his alma mater, October 29, 1941, when the force of the enemy appeared overwhelming indeed.
“When you’re sure you’re right, forget caution.” That’s about the wisest thing a publisher ever told this editorial writer.
It ranks up there with something another publisher once told me: The best editorials appeal to the community’s own standards-while trying to raise them. It’s a neat trick, but the only one really worth doing on an editorial page.
The real winner of any debate, win or lose, is the one who raises its level, not lowers it to just a mutual exchange of insults. We see a lot of the latter in political commentary.
Especially with midterm elections coming at us like a fast freight.
“The best editorials articulate what everyone knows but no one has ever said before.”-William Allen White.
“We read to find out what we already know.”-V.S. Naipaul.
Make the phone call. Silence is the worst response.
“Nothing can be more useful to a man than a determination not to be hurried.”-Henry David Thoreau.
New Englander or not, he must have been a Southerner at heart.
Obey the rules. Imagine if everyone did.
Don’t settle for less than the best.
Avoid cheap things, whether in thought or only material purchases.
They’re the most expensive in the long run. Quality is the best buy in all things.
The South will rise again, just not in the way we thought.
Don’t turn on the television, except maybe during tornado season.
There may be some exceptions to this rule (Lonesome Dove, The Forsyte Saga, Sesame Street) but in general TV is the greatest time-waster ever invented. It’s not the trash, the inanity, the shout shows, the Glenn Becks andKeith Olbermanns and their fellow ideological zealots of right or left, or the sex-with-violence that’s the worst thing about television. It’s the escapism, the unspoken but allpermeating message that your own life isn’t the one worth watching.
A capacity for surprise is the truest sign of the believer. ’Cause one never knows, do one?
Be willing to change your mind. No one should have to live with a bad decision.
Stop rushing. The world is a conspiracy to keep us running instead of thinking. Or feeling.
Look before you leap, and he who hesitates is lost. You may take your choice of those two opposite but equal counsels.
And, oh yes, beware of old guys weaving maxims.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report;
if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Amen.
Paul Greenberg is editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. This column has been updated from time to time since it first ran February 7, 2007. E-mail him at: pgreenberg@arkansasonline.com
Perspective, Pages 81 on 09/26/2010