From nearly the beginning, we have struggled to understand how the world around us works. But for all that we have a naturally inquisitive nature, this has never been about artless curiosity or pure research – we want to discover the mechanisms driving cause to effect. We want access to the levers of the former, and to be less at the mercy of the latter. . .
How do they do that, these Marines? Generation after generation? In particular, how do such young Americans, so many still in their teens, shoulder such crushingly mighty burdens with such martial aplomb and dignified competence? That’s a pretty good question. . .
It is said that Samurai warriors trained specifically to not fear death, in order to clear the way to victory. In a perverse sort of way, that sounds magnificently martial. But it’s wrong. . .
This metaphor is one of many used to suggest the taking of bold action at the risk of incalculable danger. It points to those – often, “leaders” – who putatively live in the fast lane, think large thoughts, dare great deeds. Even in defeat, such larger-than-life personages are wondrous, mythic, object lessons in greatness. But, have you ever been sailing?
The heroism of so many may be unsung, un-noted by wider society. It may even slip away – as, in truth, it so often does – into the sands of time, leaving no apparent impression whatever. But their legacy is not in their fall to a mortality which they never presumed to scornfully rise above . . .
The evolving debate over the difference between us and the animals proceeds apace. Animals are now regarded as having true communication ability including language, generationally transmitted culture, even a wide range of what we had previously imagined to be solely human emotions.
My personal favorite has always been . . .
The star academic, part of the galaxy of high speed intellectuals at a prominent university, had gotten hold of what was being presented as a “big idea.” He professed, with the peculiarly misplaced condescension that this sort often affect, only to the most profound humility, but he knew he had this right, and that those who disagreed with him had it wrong. But, then, there was the problem of why they disagreed with him. . .
Or:
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