Sunday Morning Thoughts

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

Feuds of this nature, though too frequent in the country, are very fatal to the ordinary people; who are so used to be dazzled with riches, that they pay as much deference to the understanding of a man of an estate, as of a man of learning; and are very hardly brought to regard any truth, how important soever it may be, that is preached to them, when they know there are several men of five hundred a year, who do not believe it.

Excerpt From: Addison, Joseph. “The De Coverley Papers.”

The difference between god and religion is the difference between acknowledging the existence of motor vehicles and being a Ford Man. I mention this because it was a year ago today I collapsed on the beach at Ponce Inlet where I lay unconscious for half an hour before being rushed in an ambulance to Halifax Hospital.

While I don’t profess any religion I will at least thank my lucky stars  - or whatever it is that guides and directs me - for the ineffable privilege that is life. I can’t say that my thankfulness is the better for my calamity. I have always revelled in the paradigm of living. I am capable of enlarging my capital to the summit of philosophic gratitude. I never have been either persuaded or dissuaded by others in that posture. By some inexplicable theory I remain boldly - perhaps even blindly - convinced of my own inordinate fortuity, the expanse of which I privately consider so wide as to conceal a universal design. That is the closest I swing to religion - approaching as it does the theme of Pantheism. No matter how it translates what remains is my unqualified passion for life, my commitment to the belief in the blessing of the people who have surrounded me and my greedy ambition for what is to come - both spiritual and mundane.

My goal has never been to heighten the appearance of my own conduct. I willingly acknowledge that my prescription for living is no more or less sheepish than any other. In the end any dissimilarity may amount to no more than a distinction without a difference. I also fully accept that some people derive complete individuality of expression even within the context of popular customs. I prefer not to linger where misconstruction is manifestly evident.

"A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to escape the censures of the world: if the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applauses of the public: a man is more sure of his conduct, when the verdict he passes upon his own behaviour is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all that know him."

Addison, Joseph. “The De Coverley Papers.”