How did I get here? I just want to ride motorcycles. 9/11, I guess; it retasked my entire life. The people who did that don’t deserve this level of influence over my entire life. I need to try to pull it back into my control.
After… yeah, I get it now. That’s how I ended up here.
my first email today was about establishing a new ammunition company in Central Asia.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's a generic email phenomenon. I keep getting emails from fly-by-night publishers and agents wanting to turn a couple of my early political philosophy books into movies. They're not talking about documentaries, either; that want to do action movies.
All I have to do to take advantage of their offer is to pony up some upfront costs for the movie-making. Oh, and give up a range of personal data so they can better contact me....
Eric Hines
.577/450 , no doubt- for the Martini's.
ReplyDeleteI've always found Ecclesiastes 9 to be helpful in such circumstances. I don't know if it will speak to you, but here it is:
ReplyDeleteBut all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hate man does not know. Everything before them is vanity, since one fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good man, so is the sinner; and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that one fate comes to all; also the hearts of men are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward; but the memory of them is lost. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and they have no more for ever any share in all that is done under the sun.
Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already approved what you do.
Let your garments be always white; let not oil be lacking on your head.
Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life which he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. For man does not know his time. Like fish which are taken in an evil net, and like birds which are caught in a snare, so the sons of men are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.
I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. There was a little city with few men in it; and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it. But there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heeded.
The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.
Thank you, Tom. Usually my favorite verse from Ecclesiastes is “Cast thy bread upon the waters, and it will return to you after many days.” That one, however, is especially welcome today.
ReplyDelete