A Winter's Day

I am making a New Year's resolution.  Yes, I aim to cut out sweets in my diet, nothing profound, but at my age, this is a near impossibility; this brain is hardwired for sweets.  I am going to try anyway as I never learn.  Not a great feat to start out a new year, but it is something to strive for, however trivial.

On this snowy day, I am become philosophic; remembering a piece of literature I always return to.  Alexander Pope's ESSAY ON MAN was a seminal work in his time and much acclaimed, and, it is profound. The theme being, "what is, is right."  My main go to line though is (not verbatim), we are all part of the chain, whereby one part is broken, the whole will fall.  It is so timely today.  As an aside, another favorite writer/philosopher of mine, Voltaire, wrote CANDIDE (another fav) as a satirical response to Pope's ESSAY ON MAN (and his "what is, is right" theme.)

In the recently read JUST KIDS, Patti Smith writes about her mother's oft quoted maxim, (not verbatim), that what is happening on New Year's Day, so goes the rest of the year.  Well hey, I am going to be busy, painting and reading on New Year's Day (and eschewing sweets just in case that old saw is true.)  Here is more from Alexander Pope's ESSAY ON MAN.  It is worth a study/read again.

"Hope springs eternal in the human breast;

Man never is, but always to be blessed:

The soul, uneasy and confined from home,

Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

Hoping 2016 is filled with goodness and light for all of you.

Half Empty/Half Full

One of my favorite books is CANDIDE by Voltaire. While staying in St-Germain-des-Pres in Paris, I had to go aound the corner and have a look at the building where Voltaire lived and died.  It is on the left bank of the Seine. Just for a little backstory, Voltaire, the great French philosopher, amassed a library of more than 21,000 books with his favorite subjects being metaphysics, moral philosophy, physics, history, critical deism...  He wrote his satire, CANDIDE, in 1759, during the Age of Enlightenment.  It was considered his magnum opus.  

Voltaire rejected a common theory of the time, that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds."  He argued that this theory of optimism was wrong - that if this were the best possible world, then it would surely be better than it is, citing natural disasters, war, catastrophes etc.  Thus, Candide was born of Voltaire's writings and discussions on this subject.

Candide did set out and travel the world, full of hope and optimism, looking for the good in man.  An epic journey, the end finds Candide returning home, "to cultivate his garden."  I won't give more away than that.

And, about another modern credo, the glass is either half empty or half full, I've always said, it's half.  Guess that makes me a realist.