On Moderation, by Harry Clor. Have begun this again - will try to study and grasp and evaluate his essays. At this point: Recommended; a sober look at the lost virtue.
TOAD LAKE Welcomes You (and a lot of good THAT will do you...)
Waes ye hael, whether Hale & Hearty, whether Malign or Benign, but especially if you're Odd, Phobic, or Timid (& so ill-suited for it all, & so welcome here).
City: Let's call it "Fingiswold"...., California Franciscensis, United States
I only wish I could, like Beowulf, say:
"Hwæt! þu worn fela, | wine min Unferð,
beore druncen | ymb Brecan spræce,
sægdest from his siðe. | Soð ic talige,
þæt ic merestrengo | maran ahte,
earfeþo on yþum, | ðonne ænig oþer man."
"Ah, you've said quite a bit, my dear Unferth,
drunken with your beer, about Breca,
and laid out his triumph! But I say sooth,
that I owned much more sea-strength,
suffering the waves, than any other man!"
Yet I cannot!
Perhaps, like Epictetus, I may say, of the world and its evils,
"What is that to me? Is it within my control or a matter outside of it? If it is not within my control - and the only thing that is within my control IS my Will - then I shall not fret over it at all, but accept it and apply myself to it as best I may."
For the truth is - these evils are normal, they are natural, they are not (in the end) evil at all, just - consequent; and matters of indifference.
Indifferent things I should not be attached to, but am:
The riddle of being created limp bully-fodder for the madhouse inmates, yet also being perpetually teased by fantasies of things like fairness, honesty, friendship, a satisfaction of desire.
Rome, Greece, Stoicism, Reason, Christ, Sol Invictus, Shamash ipse, Chivalry, Pluralism, Lau-tze, Antiquity, et sequentia....
Female beauty, that strange and implacable stimulus that turns life on its head - daily.....
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