Wisdom about war from "The Lord of the Rings"

I am rereading J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings many years after my last reading.  At the front of the copy, on 11 Jan 2002 I wrote:

“Do we Orc-hestrate our wars?  We are the Fellowship and our enemies are the Orcs.  We slaughter hundreds of them without qualm and bury with great honor the few of us who suffer more than scratches.  See p. 58.”

On p.  58 I bracketed:
‘Deserves it!  I daresay he does.  Many that live deserve death.  And some that die deserve life.  Can you give it to them?  Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.  For even the very wise cannot see all ends...'

Gandolf gave this response to Frodo’s condemnation of Gollum who is “as bad as an Orc, and just an enemy.  He deserves death.”

Too soon old, too late smart

Each season it seems I can do less than I did in the same season last year.

My skis are as fast as ever but it seems each year I make fewer runs than I did the previous year.  Flying over bumps is no longer a thrill but a chill.  Cross-country skiing on an un-groomed trail is too much of a chore.  Snowshoeing on fresh deep snow has become a very slow process.  I only do one-third of the trail before I head back to the cabin.

I can get up out of deep snow if I fall, but I might have been lucky the last time.  My foot came out of one snowshoe.  The loose snowshoe became a "crutch" to push myself up with.

Snow shoveling is no longer a one-session job.  Shovel out to the garage. Shovel half the apron between the garage and the alley, maybe both halves if the snow is light.  If the snow is deep or the city grader has been by then I might use the snow blower.

My next session (or first depending on circumstances) is to clear around the house to the front, clear across the front yard and up the porch for the mail carrier.  Next I clear a shovel width to the street and both ways on the sidewalk.

I long ago gave up running.  I wasn’t getting shin splints as I was in high school and college, but I stopped running around a track or on the street.  I do walk the “4.4” mile Brimson Sisu, but even there my times seem longer than the previous year.

I can still stand on one leg to put my pants on or as an exercise, but I often wobble.  I used to think nothing of standing on a step stool to change a light bulb or to climb a ladder on to the roof of our cabin.  I can still remember going up and down the ladder to get a bat out of our chimney.  Now it takes a long time to move one foot from the ladder to the roof, even worse to move the other foot.

We buy juice and wine by the case and store them in the basement.  A few years ago I thought nothing of going down the stairs with a case, glancing only a few times to let me know when I got to the bottom.  Now, I either take a few bottles at a time or go down backwards dragging the full case one step at a time.

For a long time I’ve spouted the mantra: We should never listen to our parents.  They tell us to act our age.  If we do that, we grow up.  If we grow up, we get old.  If we get old, we die.  So, why act our age?

I am doing my best to not act my age.  Instead of playing with all these “big kid” toys, be it skis or yard equipment, I now play with words.

I write this weekly column, which is both playing with words and ideas.

I have all but given up on writing letters to the editor of any major newspaper; too many times what is published is not what I intended.  In fact, with two different papers what was published was exactly the opposite of what I submitted.  But I find that I spend too much time leaving comments on facebook or on a New York Times article.  Leaving comments is not a bad idea, but I rarely come back to see what others submitted after me.

I do post all kinds of ideas to my blog, but I get the feeling that lots of them are read by more spammers’ bots than live people. I think I get more live readers in Duluth of this column than I get live readers in the whole world of my blog.

I do think I’m getting smart in the sense that I see through fancy, deceiving language more quickly than I used to.  Political language, no matter the source, is too often either promising more than possible or putting down opposition more than justified.  Commercial language, no matter the product or service, is filled with hype or misdirection.  This new software makes beautiful documents if you only want to do something simple.  This car gives you carefree driving if you can find the wiper switch in the dark.

Still, I have a long way to go to be smart.

A smart person would not start a snow-filled chipper on a cold day.  The flywheel is frozen in place and the belt gets hotter and hotter until it catches fire!  A smart person would remember to put the cover on before snow got in the hopper.

A smart person would always check for hat and gloves before leaving an event.  A smart person would look under a chair at home for a pen before thinking that he or she left it someplace else.

A smart person would listen intently to a speaker, remember all key points, and not fall asleep.

A smart person would keep a desk neatly ordered instead of spending lots of time looking in every stack and every file drawer.

A smart person would remember to submit an article by the publisher’s deadline.  Aha!  I am redeemed.  Now to be a really smart person and submit this article to the right email address!

Except for the last, italicized sentence, this also appears in the Reader Weekly of 2014-04-03 at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2014/04/03/3172_too_soon_old_too_late_smart.  This particular issue is also called the Northland Enquirer.

Three surprising things about this blog

1.  Every day, people read this blog in at least five other countries besides the United States.  These other countries can be located on any of the six populated continents.

2.  More often than I would think, a search for keywords puts this blog on the first page.

3.  Only about 30 people a day read this blog.

If you enjoy reading my whimsey and my "wisdom", or even my rants and ravings, please tell two other people about this blog.

Also, if you're one of my friends who is clicking ads to give me a little more income, please don't.  I have no idea what ads have been clicked on, but you are hurting whoever placed the ad.  These ads could be placed by Mega Corp or by Mom and Pop's corner store.  Many ads only cost a penny or two and some cost two or three dollars.  I appreciate the income, but not at somebody else's unproductive expense.  This holds double if you are a Democrat clicking on Republican ads or a Republican clicking on Democratic ads.  Aren't political campaigns expensive enough as it is?

A couple of interesting quotes

The first is from the panel, appointed by and funded by Toyota to look into its safety problems.  The Star Tribune, 2011-05-24, Business quoted the panel that Toyota noted its success in saving over $100 million by negotiating a limited recall of all-weather floor mats".  The Strib wrote this as "an example of what the independent panel called the automaker's view of regulation as an 'adversarial process' that considers blocked regulations to be 'wins.'"

Gosh, too bad more complainers of government overregulation aren't caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

The second is some words of wisdom in Sheri S. Tepper's "The Visitor", a post apocalypse science-fantasy: "You asked for wisdom?  Hear these words.  Nothing limits intelligence more than ignorance; nothing fosters ignorance than one's own opinions; nothing strengthens opinions more than refusing to look at reality."

The problem is what is reality: we are spending too much or we are not investing enough?

An explanation of wisdom

At coffee this morning, one fellow mentioned a comedian's line that God gave men just enough blood to fill their brains or their penises, but not enough for both at the same time. Possibly my friend was quoting Robin Williams.

I replied, "That explains why older men are wiser."