To Write with a Broken Pencil is Pointless

Throwback Thursday

Over the course of a lifetime I've found it handy to keep a handful of pithy sayings in the back pocket of one's mind. You never know when they might come in handy.

Here are a few that I've found myself repeating over the years, primarily because they are a little less common than "it is what it is" which I also use a bit too frequently.

"Everything is easy for the one who doesn't have to do it."

This one is readily available for any number of situations, especially in the world of work. People often give advice to others and wonder why it isn't immediately jumped on and appreciated. Well, that's because everything is easy for the one who doesn't have to do it. Whether it's meeting deadlines, managing multiple projects, overcoming addictions, or saving for retirement, everything's easy for the one who doesn't have to do it.

This doesn't mean we can't ever give advice, but we ought be sensitive when we're dishing it out. As Eleanor Roosevelt put it, “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.”

"The butler who folds his hands spills no tea." 

This one is fun because it takes a moment to process. Bosses generally do not like mistakes, though generally they readily admit that mistakes come with the territory when you're attempting to accomplish things. A batter who fails to get on base six of ten times is considered great. Strikeouts are part of going up and taking your swings. 

"Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive." 

My mom frequently recited this and I know why. She's from Scots heritage and this statement's origin is Sir Walter Scott from one of his novels. With a handful of words it says plenty.

Life is complicated enough without trying to cover our tracks and be deceptive. Sooner or later, it's going to get you. How many times we read stories about people caught embezzling or evading paying taxes.

If you need to arm yourself with some new quip material, there are plenty of websites devoted to collecting these kinds of pearls. Here are a few from a website called Quips, Quotes & Pithy Sayings, which apparently no longer exists.

Experience enables you to recognize a mistake every time you repeat it.

To write with a broken pencil is pointless.

Profanity is the effort of a feeble mind to express itself forcefully.

America is one of the few places you can say what you speak without thinking.

Unless you have never been tempted, don't pass judgment on someone who has yielded.

Don't mistake activity for achievement.

Or you can simply quote lines from Dylan, like I do. I used to rely on this one:

"Meantime life goes on all around you."

 But for 2020 my new go to is:

"People are crazy, times are strange."

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Photo at top of page is Lena, my 5 month old granddaughter.

Washington Is Broken. Here's How To Fix It.

COVID-19 didn't cause the problem. It only made apparent how serious the problem is. The two-party system is broken. Neither party is interested in working together to solve problems. Based on observing their behavior for half a lifetime, it's apparent that each party's sole aim is to maintain power, to control the playing cards.

Compromise has become such an odious notion that no one wants to compromise anything. This is why we will have to eliminate it from the national vocabulary.

When politicians compromise, their constituents get angry at them. As a result, they fear repercussions, and it clouds their thinking. (Whenever you see behavior that seems irrational and doesn't make sense, if you probe you'll generally find a fear-based cause underneath it.)

SO we get rid of the word altogether. "No Compromise" now means, "No, I will not use the word Compromise."

Instead we will use the words Cooperate and Collaborate.

WHAT IF
What if we were to cast a spell over the Capitol that forced every congressperson to be locked in a room until they actually agreed on something. I know, it sounds like a fantasy, but what if?

What if instead of attacking each other from across the aisle, they got on the same side of the aisle and looked at the problems in front of them from the same angle. Us against the problem, not us against you.

* * * *

The mess is a mess. One thing I learned a long time ago is that if you want to find out HOW things failed, you'll never find out the truth if your detectives show up with a hanging judge in tow. 

Why do we listen to all this blame game, since we (again) do not really have all the facts, but only know that which has been mediated to us through others. This is why C.S. Lewis never read the newspapers. What's really happening is seldom covered, and if it was important you might hear about it six months from now.

Realistically, I do not expect things to be fixed. The best we can hope for might be damage control.

As Milton Friedman wrote in An Economists Protest, "I think the government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem and very often makes the problem worse." 

* * * *

Forgive me but, to paraphrase  the Everly Brothers, "All I want to do is dream, dream, dream."