1. This next year I have a feeling I will eat more fish and less red meat. The latter does not excite me so much at the six P.M. of the present as in six P.M.'s of yore.
2. I find I drink slightly more than I used to, and that this is quite the best thing.
3. I have almost left off smoking altogether. Aside from the evening cigar or clove enjoyed with company now and again, the thing mostly bores me.
4. I have been teaching myself French for a week now, and believe I will be fluent in it before the start of summer.
5. I would have thought #4 would affect #3 differently than it has done. Hmm.
6. I imagine I'll write a book and see it published.
7. I think I will learn to be more decisive at critical junctures than I have been heretofore. This is quite likely.
8. I am pretty sure this is not a critical juncture.
9. I am comfortable with the single life, but have concluded, more or less, that matrimony is the more historically validated position. This may seem obvious to some, but let us examine the two sides:
Unmarried:
1)St. Paul
2)Elizabeth I
3)Thomas Aquinas
4)Leonardo Davinci
5)Virgil
Married:
1)Moses
2)Charlemagne
3)Aristotle
4)William Shakespeare
5)Dante
10. I think I would do well to read more devotional and theological literature. I'm woefully under-read in the church fathers.
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5 comments:
Dear Tom,
I don't think Dante really counts. His greatest work was in effect a love poem to the Other Woman. The rest of your list sounds very much what Dad would qualify as "Samurai.'
Interesting point about Dante; going by that set of guidelines, Shakespeare also comes into question.
It may be that the singletons will yet have their day in the sun.
Isn't "Davinci" actually written "da Vinci"?
Thom,
I think Dante counts. Dorthy Sayers, in her notes on Purgatorio, says that Dante's love for his wife probably helped him in more ways that he realizes. Particularly, he probably learned that women consider their lovers to be comical from his wife.
On the other hand, I think you left at least one important person off the "single" side. Jesus. From my perspective it's almost easier to say "perhaps the married will one day have their day in the sun."
Re: French-- if all you're doing is teaching yourself, it may be difficult to become fluent in 3 months. Unless, maybe, you know the International Phonetic Alphabet, have an amazing ear for boring tapes, and/or are trying to win over a foreign exchange student who speaks no English before the semester ends and she flies away. Based on my own experience, it's difficult to become fluent in 3 months even if you've got the knack and even in-country doing nothing else. But maybe you mean "fluent in a few phrases."
Sorry, I just had to explode your ego.
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