Unsolved Mysteries
In an earlier column (Old Saws) I wrote that, contrary to expectation, advancing age leads not to greater understanding of life but to greater puzzlement and uncertainty. I then listed the few ideas that I have become certain are true.
To add to that account of certainties, I even flatter myself that I have begun to understand, just a little bit, that marvelous mystery of Creation known as Woman. But only a little bit and much too late to do anybody any good. I think also that I understand politicians, people seeking power over others, or at least I can recognise them as an expression of the eternal corruption of human nature. (The early leaders of America, by the way, before our first real politician/President, Lincoln, were not power-seekers. For them public office was a matter of honour. It was a symbol that their patriot service had been recognized by their fellow citizens, and a trust rather than an ego trip.)
There are still many things that I experience almost every day that remain for me unfathomable mysteries defying all comprehension:
sleep;
the magical communion of cold, gin, vermouth, and olive;
American drivers who rush to pass you and then slow down in front of you at less speed than you were going when they passed. Also, American drivers who poke along and then accelerate when you start to pass them.
grown men who spend hours speculating on the qualities and prospects of various coaches, teams, and athletes;
that new institutions and movements are started by creative people, but the more successful they become, the more the creators are pushed aside and conniving mediocrities take over. (I have seen this happen to political organizations, academic departments, religious groups, businesses, and publications, with so few exceptions that it seems almost a perverse law of of nature.)
the number of people who see what they have been told to see rather than what is right in front of them. (This tendency generally tends to increase the more "educated" the perceiver is.)
why a certain type of American for well over three centuries now has been impelled to construct a false image of his Southern fellow citizens and preach hatred against us;
that although truth-seeking is seldom rewarded and often punished, yet as a teacher I encountered every single year a few young people with a deep longing for truth;
the birth of a new soul into the world;
that anyone could possibly believe that human beings are entirely determined by their environment. (Anyone who paid the least attention to the world knows that is not even true of a puppy.)
that anyone could possibly believe that this immense and immensely complex Creation is no more than some kind of accident.
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Your second to last mystery is a very good point to make. Anyone who has had a puppy knows it to be true, and if you tried to tell a child, in terms that he could understand, that his puppy were only a product of it's environment, they would immediately sense the falseness of it, maybe even get mad. So why do so many adults not make the connexion?
Anyone who's raised two babies knows the same thing.
Their internal metronomes, for one thing, are set at birth or before.
Dr. Wilson,
Your words, given below, hit home!
"that new institutions and movements are started by creative people, but the more successful they become, the more the creators are pushed aside and conniving mediocrities take over. (I have seen this happen to political organizations, academic departments, religious groups, businesses, and publications, with so few exceptions that it seems almost a perverse law of of nature.)"
I had the oppotunity in the not too distant past to be involved in, along with fourteen others, the creation of a new school which not only have the potential for becoming meaningfully unique but actually, in the first one-and-one-half year, became that. Yet, within that short span of time, a little over eighteen months, the conniving mediocrities began to take over. At the end of three years, it was over. The school still exists and has gained through astute public relationtions quite the reputation; however, in reality its alleged excellence is a facade hiding that very mediocrity which had stolen its essence.
On driving:
"American drivers who rush to pass you and then slow down in front of you at less speed than you were going when they passed. Also, American drivers who poke along and then accelerate when you start to pass them."
I encounter the same drivers you do. They must make the trip from South Carolina to Louisiana every day! In September of 1994, I had, an interesting encounter with one of those drivers who poke along and then accelerate when you start to pass them. I was driving with a friend from Natchitoches, Louisiana, to Mobile, Alabama, on a route which took me through Monticello, Mississippi. A little pickup ambled out in front of me, doing about 40 mph in a 55 zone. The highway was taking us uphill. Good fortune provided one of those passing lanes one often finds in the hill country, so I accelerated and began to pass him; well, he sped up - up to 50, 55, 60+. I finaly overtook him and passed him just as the passing lane was ending at the crest of the hill. By this time, I was doing about 66 mph. Bad fortune, or so I thought, proved for a marshal sitting just under the crest of the hill. On came the blue lights. The friend traveling with me noted that the little pickup had turned around. My vehicle, of course, had Louisiana tags. I was an alien and fair game. Actually, I was the fox; the pickup was the rabbit - well trained; and the marshall was the hunter's hound which had me by the neck (pocket book). One wonders how many folk have encountered that pickup and that marshal near Monticello, Mississippi?
"the number of people who see what they have been told to see rather than what is right in front of them."
E.g., when Jesus said, "This is my body...This is my blood..."
Or
"Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved."
My two favorites:
"American drivers who rush to pass you and then slow down in front of you at less speed than you were going when they passed. Also, American drivers who poke along and then accelerate when you start to pass them."
This is my public enemy #1 while driving. It boggles my mind each time it happens. What really goes on in their mind?....
"grown men who spend hours speculating on the qualities and prospects of various coaches, teams, and athletes."
I ponder this every Sunday and Monday night during football season especially. If these people spent as much time discussing religion and politics the world would be alot better off. Im a diehard Philadelphia Flyers and Eagles fan, but IT IS JUST A GAME FELLAS!!!!!!!!!!!
Please Dr. Wilson, will you be the next host of Unsolved Mysteries? Wow, I would love to see that.
Tonight on Unsolved Mysteries.....Drivers who fly at dangerous speeds forcing other cars to move into another lane..... sportscasters possessed by the sports demons....politicians......
perhaps tonight you can help solve a mystery.
"why a certain type of American for well over three centuries now has been impelled to construct a false image of his Southern fellow citizens and preach hatred against us;"
A recent article in Modern Age adresses some of this in a very frightening way. http://www.mmisi.org/ma/48_03/pickett.pdf
Dr. Wilson,
You are a national treasure. And like most of our national treasure, it is being offered up for sacrifice today by nuts. Please keep your posts coming, reading them is one of the few joys left in my day except of course, sleep.
Why is there 'mystery'? That which in Fact connot be known. That which we can know (those of us with a high enough i.q.) is unknowable.
WHY?
Tell me why-why-why you cried - and why you lied For me?
Why are people stupid, usually - regardless of intelligence?
Funny thing - most people mistake what is knowable - as 'mystery' - case in point like - 'The Fed' - ooooooohhhh. wow. wowie.
Though that which is unknowable they 'think'/(believe) they 'know.'
Why is there humor? Wait, that should be self-explanatory, no?
_________
hey i wuv (seriously) robert reavis & 'almost' philip zurich above... but i hear'Ya roberto... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
can you still laugh -?-
if not you can't even imagine (fortunately for you) you don't merit it - what's worse. i'm getting 'sick' of this myself. i'm going to change it.
_____
Ah, Dr. Clyde, the hubris! To claim at once to recognize increasingly your "puzzlement and uncertainty" (age makes me at least as humble) and then an understanding, however slight, of women! I have one wife (46 years), three daughters, seven granddaughters, and one great-granddaughter, understanding none of them, adoring them all, spending my days completely at their mercy. Your hubris (or greater wisdom) on the subject may have to do with your improper spelling of your last name. It derives, of course, from "Will's son," or "son of William," neither of which could be without the extra "l." I have always suspected that Scots dropped one to avoid being identified with their English enemies, and who could blame them? I know that quite a few of my New England ancestors changed to the one "l" after the War for Independence for a similar reason. I had "people," as Mel Bradford used to say, on both sides, and came from a family utterly ignorant of a "proposition" founding, then or since. They probably kept the old spelling out of stubbornness. May I use this as a segue to your "Proposition Nation" essay in the current Chronicles? I like it very much, wanting to quibble only with your inclusion of Mr. Coolidge in your lineup of shame. His "business is business" speech was not his best, to be sure, but if you read his autobiography, and the great bulk of his speeches (all of which he wrote) you will see a man who was not a seeker after power, and a man who was grounded in village life, family, hard work and duty. He was also a deeply believing Christian of the Presbyterian variety, thus having much in common with several of your favorite leaders. I was once a great admirer of John Adams, but made the mistake of visiting his Quincy home and the Unitarian "church" he established in his will, and where he and Abigail are buried. He was, I'm afraid, a man of the Enlightenment. Coolidge, on the other hand, was our last constitutional President.
Dear John Willson, thank you for your comments, as ever kind and gracious. All the best of this Joyous Season to you and yours. As to understanding the better part of humanity, I did say "only a little bit." I think you are correct about John Adams. I admit to native Southern bias against Governor Coolidge---will have to strudy that. I always thought that you Willsons were the aristocrats and us Wilsons were just the plain old folks. Regards, Clyde
If that ain't a yankee fer ye!
sometimes priests get ahead of themselves i think is what smythe is saying... it could be spiritual ambition or pride...
that's normal... (who want's to 'stay' here?) ... but chill - i.e. accept
or blow your head off - like hemingway after his misguided electrical 'shock' treatments failed???
i maintain - they Actually killed him - ?
teach us to care and not to care.
who cares?
reavis - tickle-tickle?
otherwise seriously the organic is at (seriously) http://www.primaltherapy.com
dig it.
blesses
P.S. hemingway's mom (a student of Christian Science) used to grow out his hair into rabbinical like curls and dress him dresses. his dad committed suicide. what's the moral - women Can get ahead of themselves as well - [where we goin?]
chill - if possible
accept - or go at least for the organic : http://www.primaltherapy.com
blesses i.e. in defense of the normal - (normal) blesses !
in Fact TJF type blesses - no blasphemy intended.
blesses
________
Thanks fellows for your concern but I was really commenting on Dr. Wilson's phrase,
"There are still many things that I experience almost every day that remain for me unfathomable mysteries defying all comprehension:
sleep;..."
Simple things are the most difficult to understand. Sleep is like the Sun described by D.H. Lawrence : "Obvious and obscure." Shakespear describes it as simple and significant just as Freud and Clyde Wilson, see it also as simple and profound. The day before Socrates death, his visitors were amazed that he was sleeping peacefully as they arrived at dawn. The disciples were amazed at Christ sleeping during a storm, and so far as we know, St. Joseph may have slept through Christmas once he got situated in the stable. Yes, I enjoy reading Dr. Wilson and going to sleep musing over his lifetime of recollections.
Alright, let the battle of the Wilsons - er Willsons - begin. My name originally had two 'n's, not two 'l's: Wilsonn. Scottish covenanters from Stirling.
I always thought that 'Willson' was strictly English, whereas 'Wilson' could be English, Scottish, or anglicised German. However, Willson can be anglicised German 'Willsohn'. Then there is German Vilsen, Vilsohn, or Dutch Velsen. Whether these are abbreviations for 'son of Willhelm' or 'son of Willem, I'm not sure, but I think so.
From some of the antics of the Adams family - specifically, the story about one of the sons digging his father up, boiling the remaining flesh off the bones, etc., so he could put the skeleton on display and charge a fee to see it (I dont remember who did it or who he did it to) - one would think there should be two 'd's in the name.